Customer Reviews
Nu Med gets your blood pumping. - By: Mikey, 29 Sep 2008 
...pumping around your legs & feet that is. Like their first album this is a must have for anyone with an interestin funky Balkan Gypsy music fused with Klezmer, HipHop, Dub, Tango, ...
In a similar entertaining vein of balkan frenzy I would also recommend Remixed by De Amsterdam Klezmer Band & from Shantel: Disko Partizani, Bucovina Club Vol 1 & Vol 2.
Thrilling! - By: A. Winskill, 23 Oct 2007 This album tickles every one of my musical tastebuds...
Having found it by 'surfing' around Amazon & listening to soundbytes from all & sundry I am delighted.
Humourous, skilled, original & inspiring.
Bright, breezy, and Balkan. - By: John Tree, 09 Aug 2007 Want to know why Balkan music is sweeping the world's dancefloors at the moment?
Just have a blast of Nu-Med & all will be revealed. BB seem to be followingin the great seventies Two Tone tradition of united races...Israelis, Moroccans, Bulgarians, arabs, jews all kinds of influences clashing gloriously togetherin a massive rocking party: make music, have a ball & break down divides.
There is a refreshing lack of pretension to this sound, an invigorating blend of virtuoso musicianship, bizarre time signatures, an anarchic collision of east/west/old/new instrumentation, & above all, driving grooves. I personally love the mix of old & new. Snake charmer's pipes over beatbox rhythms, accordian, oompah tuba, surf guitar, chunky b-lines, Hip hop sensibilities. A genre-defying collision of mediterranean & eastern european stylesin grand sweeping arrangements. The overall effect is hypnotic & driving, forcing the feet to move, the hands to gyrate above the head, & a large toothy grin to spread across the face.
Resistance is futile, get down & get dancin'... huzzah!
New med - By: E. A Solinas, 15 Jul 2007 Just look at the camels parachuting into a striped desert. Who wouldn't want to listen to what's inside?
Well, hopefully lots of people will. East European fusion music is moderately hot right now, with bands like Beirut & Gogol Bordello on the rise. But one of the best ones is Balkan Beat Box, whose second album "Nu Med" further polishes their ethnic hip-hop/rock sound -- it's just a thoroughly colourful, flavourful album.
It opens with a deliciously funky "Keep it Straight," which sounds like an Arabian market being invaded by hip-hop gypsy brass bands. It's followed by the deliciously colourful rap song "Hermetico," riddled with brass blats, handclaps, horses, & a voice telling us, "We're comin' straight through your ears, no complications... here we go, you better listen..."
They follow it with the exotic "Habibi Min Zaman," which sounds like a James Bond soundtrackin the Middle-East, & leadin to a bunch of even better songs: bootyshaking marches, sinuous rap, gypsy music wrappedin electrodance, folksy horn-rock, funky Balkan dance tunes, & colourful folk pop filled with yipping, yowling vocals.
If anything, "Nu Med" is even better than Balkan Beat Box's debut -- it's more polished & melodious, & more relaxed now that they have their sound down. But they don't change much musically, with the core of the music remaining the same: Middle-Eastern & East-European folk music, interwoven with modern dance, rock & hip-hop.
Musically it's a big hodgepodge -- you can hear some steely guitar buried under all the other sounds, which is the most normal part of it. Then you have nimble horns forming sinuous melodies & funky edges, solid drums, some colourful electronica, some accordion & some murmuring violinsin "Mexico City," which is the one dudin the album. It's too sedate & mellow for the raucous overall sound.
But they also spice it up with samples & odd sounds -- babies laughing, horses neighing, a man calling outin another language. Andin some songs, we get some very heavily accented rapping, usually pretty nonsensical: "I'm the digital monkey/supply the freakin' season with the rhythm that's funky/I come from Belize/but don't belong to no country..."
"Nu Med" takes what Balkan Beat Box had to begin with, & polishes it to gem status. Despite that one dud song, it's a wild, colourful festival ride, full of gypsy music & dance flavour.
Dance with a Difference - By: R. Williams, 08 Jul 2007 After enjoying BBB's first album for a year & a half, I wasn't sure how I'd react to this album but it definitely delivers & is arguably even better, tighter & more varied than the first. This is a band who know who they are & where they're going (far, I suspect).
The blend of Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, Eastern European influences held together with a strong dance beat, mesmerising horns & surf-style guitar is hypnotic & very, very danceable. At once, an invitation to a joyous party & a call to transcend our cultural & national borders; Nu Med is music that reminds us we can all live (and dance) together peacefully.
There's not a weak track on the whole album, current favourites though are: Hermetico, BBBeat, Digital Monkey & Joro Boro (the return of the Bulgarian Chicks!) This is a brilliant album & one you won't stop listening to anytime soon. And they're even better live!
