Album: Mahala Rai Banda, Ghetto Blasters, (Asphalt Tango)
Romania's extraordinary Gypsy-music revival stems from just two villages: Clejani, which gave the world Taraf de Haidouks, and Zece Prajini, which spawned the brass ensemble Fanfare Ciocarlia.
This band is a fusion of talents from those two villages, and with wonderful trumpet and clarinet riffs, and voices with that wavering wildness we first heard from Haidouks, they give "ghetto-blasting" an exhilarating new meaning. Don't be put off by that "supergroup of Roma pop" description.
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