Take three musicians who are Frank Zappa fanatics, cross them with the insane vitality of Balkan dance music, and you have Choban Elektrik (Electric Shepherd), and their self-titled debut release.
Choban Elektrik’s music is billed as Balkan psychedelic jazz-rock, and that’s a pretty good description. The band is Jordan Shapiro on keyboards and guitar, Dave Johnsen on electric bass and Phil Kester on drums and percussion with Jesse Kotansky and Eva Salina Primack providing violin and vocals respectively on some tracks. The three principles have varied musical backgrounds from progressive bluegrass to classical conservatory training, but Shapiro and Johnson met in a Zappa tribute band. After Shapiro was exposed to Balkan music, they teamed up with equally eclectic percussionist Kester in the ensemble that eventually became Choban Elektrik.
Shapiro originally learned his Balkan repertoir on accordion under the tutelage of Raif Hyseni, an Albanian accordion player and bandleader living in New Jersey. But he soon decided to work them up on some of his collection of vintage keyboards, including Hammond organs and especially the Fender Rhodes electric piano that was the mainstay of jazz fusion in the 1970s. And, why not feed the result through whatever vintage effects pedals and synth processors are lying around?
The effect is mesmerizing and exciting, hypnotic and occasionally hilarious. To quote the publicity sheet that came with this release: “Loops, tape echo, heavy reverb, filters, and modulators all give the recording a sound not usually heard on Balkan folk recordings.” To say the least.
Most of the 11 tracks on this album are traditional tunes and songs, quite well-known in the world of Balkan dance music. And they play it straight, too, with the melody and rhythms, those complicated dances in 7 or 9 or 13 or 12 or 16 beats. But instead of accordions and trumpets and clarinets and cimbalom, you’ll have an electric piano hooked up to a wah-wah pedal, or as in the opening track, “Valle e Shqipërisë së Mesme,” a fuzzed-out organ, a bass playing jazz lines and dreamy cascades of notes from a vibraphone. Or an effects-laden electric guitar and extremely funky bass. Or, as in “Kopanitsa,” a Bulgarian folk dance in 11 beats, electric piano and marimba, with psychedelic feedback buzz and drones, devolving into a languid jazz piece featuring the keyboard and drums before returning to its Balkan roots. The distorted guitar goes into a total freak-out in the middle of the slow Macedonian dance “Beratche from Prespa,” like an outtake from Zappa’s Shut Up ‘n Play Yer Guitar.
That first track starts out with a half-minute improvisation on the Fender Rhodes and it could be an instrumental interlude by one of Zappa’s bands in the 1980s, until the meter changes and it becomes a Balkan dance tune. And with its deeply funky bass and improvising violin in the middle section, it could be a jamming New Orleans funk band. Eva Salina contributes reverb-laden vocals a couple of tracks, including the rhythmically complex “Moj Xhemile” and the dreamy “Çobankat,” which is played as the fairly straight ballad it is, but for the Rhodes freakout during the first solo break, and the deeply psychedelic violin solo outro.
The non-trad pieces include the dreamy “Mom Bar,” a soaring organ workout that owes more than a little to Jon Lord’s early ’70s work with Deep Purple; “Steve’s Gajda,” the debut recording of this piece by Raif Hyseni. The final piece is “Stankena Tehova” better known (for now) for its version by the Brooklyn Balkan-funk ensemble Raya Brass Band. This one sounds a lot like something I’ve probably done a circle dance to at one of the few international folk dances I’ve attended.
For a long time, my favorite alternative Balkan album was Balkans Without Borders which raised funds for the work of Doctors Without Borders in the wake of the civil strive of the 1990s. This debut release from Choban Elektrik is one of the most entertaining discs I’ve heard so far of 2012, and stands a good chance at a spot on my year-end best-of list. It’s wildly inventive yet true to its roots. Highly recommended.
Check Choban Elektrik out on Facebook or Bandcamp.
(self released, 2012)
