Editorial Reviews If that seems at all to ring of Keroucs Beatitude and open road wanderlust, its immediately undercut by the hard-earned bad wisdom of the immigrant experiences that the members of the band have known surviving their war-torn Balkan homelands and emigrating to America. In 1992 Gino Yevdjevich - Kultur Shock's charismatic frontman along with other musicians who remained in Sarajevo during the Bosnian war, wrote, composed, and performed the musical "Hair: Sarajevo, A.D. 1992" which gained international recognition and praise. Its success brought Gino to the US for a tour organized by esteemed American director Phil A. Robinson (Field of Dreams) and folk icon Joan Baez. "Kultur Shock began as a joke," says Gino. But it soon took on a life of its own and the sense of fun that sparked it drives it still. The band began playing Balkan folk songs as part tradition and part lark. Its live energy was met with enthusiastic audience responses and soon enough the bands ever-changing line-up began. The current line-up is "about eightish," guitarist Val Kiossovski adds with a smile. Val joined the band in the summer of 2000, playing guitars, programming, and singing background vocals. He and Kultur Shock's drummer, Borislav Iochev, have a long history of music collaboration, dating from the late '80, when they were members of the Sofia, Bulgaria based prog- rock quartet, Orion. Borislav and Val defected together after Radio Liberty (Radio Free Europe) broadcast one of their political songs critical of the Bulgarian Communist government at the time. Guitarist Mario Butkovich from Brcko, Bosnia & Herzegovina, is the gypsy folk secret weapon of the band, playing guitar, tambura, 12 string acoustic and just about anything with strings on it. Bass player Masa Kubayashi from Tokyo, Japan, contributes an expressive "low end" delivery, derived from his aptitude for heavy sound and intense bass lines. The core quintet playfully refers to themselves as the Immigrants and the horn section as the Amerikans, which includes new music innovator and stalwart Amy Denio on alto sax, zurla and vocals. Ambrose Nortness on tenor sax, keyboards and vocals; and Josh Stewart on trumpet have a history of working together with the Seattle based Young Composer's Collective. Kultur Shocks first incarnation is captured on 1999s Live in Amerika on Pacific Records. It displays the band at the root of its sound with a collection of Balkan folk standards. The new album FUCC the I.N.S. is an eclectic extension of the live shows evolution, the studio variant of capturing lightning in a bottle. It's Kultur Shock's rough and tumble take on rumba-fueled gypsy rock broadsided by funk, blues, and jazz inflections with a wild child punk flair. The evolution of its sound happened as the stage shows and line-up changed. The addition of guitarist Val in the summer of 2000 helped to hone the bands vision and ground the core players, energizing the music in the process. The carnivalesque party atmosphere of the bands live shows is astounding. The bands interaction with the audience is an electric exchange with a feral edge. Gino is a born entertainer/instigator and natural raconteur whose energy level seems unstoppable. He leads the rag-tag group through its high voltage set, improvising and radiating with conviction and joy. The horn section swings and burbles, the rhythm section locks in, then turns to accenting before thundering back into view, and the guitars tangle and squall. Its a beautiful racket that turns to folk elements and then bursts into rock. Its world music but without the stultifying gentility. "Were the Gipsy Kings but evil," jokes Gino. The truth is Kultur Shock makes music that is anything but evil-sounding; they turn the hardships of their homelands and the dysphoria of immigrant experience into a glorious body of song that celebrates as it dissents.
Music Review:
Music Review
Hatfield & The North [Import] [Limited Edition]
Dvorak: Bagatelles Op47; Suk: Quartet in Am
Music: Drums of Passion [Original recording remastered]
Frantic 2002: The Future Sound [Import]
Borodin: String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2
Even Better Than The Real Thing [CD-single] [Import]
About the Artist
A good manifesto is hard to find. Many a political movement and a few great bands can attest to this. As Kultur Shock, a collective of dissident musicians and creative gypsies, say, "What's freedom? Freedom is a natural right to move wherever and whenever you want."
Album Description
FUCC the I.N.S. is produced by Billy Gould and co-produced by Gino and Val and released on Billy Gould's Kool Arrow Records. The group's unique musical vision and fearless mix of vernacular, world, and rock elements adds up to a deeply rooted sense of cultural history that feeds off dislocation. The scope of expression and exuberance Kultur Shock embraces bring the crossroads of its influences to a new territory altogether. It's as if a Balkan Harry Smith or Alan Lomax brought the traditional gypsy music of the Balkans to tango with a reved-up rock band for a headlong rush into the unknown that pays tribute to tradition while carving out its own sound.