Admittedly nicht so neue noise, as this has been gathering dust in my inbox for months now. Still, this is warming our cockles despite the oncoming winter bitterness.
The 8 Bit Balkan EP does exactly what it says on the tin, delivering a delightfully bonkers chiptunes take on the traditional music of Southeastern Europe. Right now, I'm picturing an arcade game where I lay waste to U-Bahn buskers with an empty Club Mate bottle. LOL.
Scroll down to stream tracks and read a biog of the producers, Dolomites, or skip over to the IF THE KIDS Records website to buy.
The Dolomites have been an ongoing project since 1998 that have belted out an amalgamation of styles extracted from around the globe: Europe, Japan, America and South America. Founded by mastermind Stevhen Koji Iancu aka Stefanko Selecta (British National of Japanese and Romanian decent) in 1998, the Dolomites had their beginnings in an art punk house in Portland, Oregon. Their first album "A Hogshead of Whiskey" was released in the year 2000 on Walking Records. Originally consisting mainly of drinking songs from the UK in Pogues styles with Tom Waitsian accent, they later incorporated Gipsy, Jazz and evil Disney sounds on the "Medicine Show E.P.", released in 2002. Dolomite´s second album "Darumanian Chophouse" (2005), recorded and produced in Brooklyn, NYC, brought out more Gipsy elements scrambled together with Japanese Enka and pop style melodies. After the release Stevhen Koji also started working with diverse musical projects, such as Gogol Bordello, Yerba Buena, Romashka, Mad Juana (Gipsy Voodoo Stomp Lounge music), as well as with OPVC, a gamelan theatre from San Francisco. Several releases in Japan followed and the Dolomites sound steadily morphed into something nomadicly fresh, as of today bringing crunked out beats and bass to the Gipsy melodies, fusing 8Bit, chiptunes, glitch hop and wonky beats to an unmistakeable Dolomites "8Bit Balkan" sound.
