Blue Eyed Black Boy

Sick of the same old same old? Does too much hip-hop and techno leave you feeling underwhelmed? Alternative went mainstream before the Twin Towers went down, and it’s getting harder to find a real alternative to corporate product these days. I love going to parties where they break out of the radio or dance club ruts and play stuff that colors outside the lines, that opens your musical eyes and ears to a larger world. That’s how I discovered Balkan Beat Box. If you’ve never heard them, you can get their best stuff to date with their new disc, Blue Eyed Black Boy. To many Americans, world music is third-rate, Third World folk or Latino dance-pop. Balkan Beat Box is an instant party where melody and groove from around the globe merge with techno and hip-hop in unexpected ways for a result that is fun and smart, sexy and savvy. BBB offer modern accessibility while expanding your horizons. Traditional intertwines with urban cool. 

The intro is a 30-second sonic toe-in-the-pool, just in case you’re a little unsure of whether you’re up to getting in the water. You hear snatches of techno with Middle Eastern percussion and vocal samples along with a bit of the call and response from the next song. The water is cool, not cold. It plunges you right into “Move It,” a classic BBB moment: hip-hop meets reggae with an infectious chorus and a mesmerizing, klezmer-like saxophone riff that shocks and rocks. BBB are unashamedly Israeli, equally comfortable with their musical opinions on love or politics. YouTube shows BBB moving thousands of New Yorkers like so many marionettes, with comedian-turned-frontman Tomer Yosef jumping about the stage and co-founder and former Gogol Bordello saxophonist Ori Kaplan playing the Pied Piper. 

Next, the title track submerges you with a cool bass line and trippy feel that makes you feel like you’re in a much bigger fish bowl. The lyrics reinforce this; they challenge you to look into the boy’s eyes, not at his skin, for “If I look at you, I see a human, too.” “Marcha de la Vida” splashes about with an Eastern Europe-meets-Latino-pop shuffle, then gives way to the smooth strokes of “Dancing with the Moon,” which is more overtly reggae. “Kabulectro” has the more frenetic Balkan feel where old meets new. “My Baby” gives you a call and response and catchy melody in 7/4 time signature (just in case dancing to the 5/4 of “Mission: Impossible” was getting too easy for you). The pool party continues with “Balcumbia” and “Look Them Act,” reinforcing that classic BBB rap/hip-hop overlay on Middle Eastern groove. “Smatron” swirls around with a melodic, Bosnian feel and “Ljepa Mare” swims laps around and around with a crazy accordion. “Why” is another unconventional rhythmic call and response. “Buhala” dries off for a bit of that after-dark club sound, merging Middle Eastern jazz and rock. Just when you thought the waters were safe, “War Again” plunges you into the deep end, rapping about the “bang-bang in the same song again,” comparing Middle East violence to the gangland thuggery of New York City that so much modern rap addresses. If you’re new to Balkan Beat Box they’ve got three original albums to date, plus a number of remixes, and if you get the chance to see them live you won’t regret going. They are one of the most intense performers I’ve ever been privileged to see, with a line of audience girls belly-dancing and Yosef climbing the scaffolding, dropping onto the audience mid-song. They prove you can still party and have something to say. Get Blue Eyed Black Boy and let BBB crash your party! (Mark Turney)

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