For the last few years, Melbourne has witnessed an explosion of Balkan brass, searing strings and general Eastern European mayhem in small clubs and venues around town. Musiktrafik has decided it’s time to lift the bar and throw the inaugural Melbourne International Gypsy Music Festival on Sat February 27th at the Corner Hotel, headlined by Hungarian sensations Besh o droM on their first tour to Australia.
Supported by Melbourne's finest exponents of the sound, Unified Gecko, Woohoo Revue, VulgarGrad, Barons of Tang, Vardos, Rapskallion and Systa bb, this will be the first time in Australia that all the styles and flavas of the Balkans and beyond are represented in a night that will lift the roof and send dancing dust storms over the skyline.
Besh o droM meaning “Ride the Road” draws its musical basis from Transylvanian, Jewish, Afghan, Egyptian, Lebanese, Armenian, Bulgarian, Romanian and Greek tunes, mixing folk and electronic instruments. Crowd favourites at all festivals, and with four albums under their belts and one on the way they are described as an Urban Wedding Band, playing at breakneck speed with a fantastic brass section with locked down funk grooves.
Unified Gecko are the masters of Middle Eastern Boogie and gypfunk, where fast paced Turkish tunes meet Gypsy rhythms, explosive horns meet mysterious lyrics and anything can happen inbetween. Vardos bring the latest Balkan and Baltic hits plus age old legends, village wedding tunes and drunken laments,.VulgarGrad offer the old songs of Russian thieves called blatnie pesny or blatnyak along with punk classics of the Perestroika era and a strong dose of contemporary St. Petersburg swearing ska and Woohoo Revue bring their fiery arrangements of traditional Eastern European tunes where virtuoso musicianship meets romance and bravado.
The Barons of Tang will frankly scare with their terrifyingly fast paced gypsy deathcore as they throw rockabilly, punk, folk, rock and kabaret into the mix that results in some frightening dance moves, Rapskallion bring their Parisian Bohemian sensibilities, thrown out of a Romanian bar and set onstage with their roots in Eastern Europe, hip hop and hobo jazz and Systa bb is the glue that holds them all together with her swag of tunes that criss cross the area and defy genre bandits.
Expect the unexpected, dress in your finest and put on your best dancing shoes for KARAVAN! Melbourne's inaugural International Gypsy Music Festival at The Corner Hotel Sat 27th February 2010 Doors open 6pm