Balkan Beat Box

Balkan Beat Box (BBB) is an Israeli musical group founded by Tamir Muskat, Ori Kaplan and now including Tomer Yosef as a core member. The group plays Mediterranean-influenced music that incorporates Jewish, Eastern Europe (mainly Balkan) and Middle Eastern traditions, Gypsy punk, reggae and electronica. As a musical unit they often collaborate with a host of other musicians both in the studio as well as live.

History

Co-founders Ori Kaplan and Firewater's member Tamir Muskat both met in Brooklyn, New York, NY as teenagers. Both had grown up with music; Kaplan had been a klezmer clarinetist, while Muskat was a drummer in a punk rock band. They established their own unique sound by fusing the musical styles of Mediterranean and Balkan traditions with hip hop and dancehall beats.

Balkan Beat Box’s goal was to take ancient and traditional musical traditions and fuse those with hip hop in order to create a new mix of musical styles out of the traditional world music context that would appeal to listeners in a club or a dancehall. As children, they had felt that traditional music was outdated and felt as though it did not adequately reflect their experiences of the growing world culture, so hoped to bring new relevance to these old traditional musical forms. They cite Boban Marković, Rachid Taha, Fanfare Ciocarlia, Manu Chao, and Charlie Parker amongst their musical influences. The group was also influenced by Jamaican dub. In December 2006, the acclaimed artist from Tel Aviv Tomer Yosef became frontman for the group.

Balkan Beat Box (album)

Balkan Beat Box is the self-titled debut album from the Israeli electronica-world fusion trio Balkan Beat Box.

Track listing

References

Beatbox (disambiguation)

A beatbox is a person who performs beatboxing vocal percussion.

Beatbox or beat box may also refer to:

See also

Beatboxing

Beatboxing (also beat boxing or b-boxing) is a form of vocal percussion primarily involving the art of mimicking drum beats using one's mouth, lips, tongue, and voice. It may also involve vocal imitation of turntablism, and other musical instruments. Beatboxing today is connected with hip-hop culture, often referred to as "the fifth element" of hip-hop, although it is not limited to hip-hop music. The term "beatboxing" is sometimes used to refer to vocal percussion in general.

History

Prehistory

Techniques similar to beatboxing have been present in many American musical genres since the 19th century, such as early rural music, both black and white, religious songs, blues, ragtime, vaudeville, and hokum. Few examples are the Appalachian technique of eefing and the blues song Bye bye bird written and performed by the harmonica player Alex or Aleck Miller aka Sonny Boy Williamson II.

Additional influences may perhaps include forms of African traditional music, in which performers utilize their bodies (e.g., by clapping or stomping) as percussion instruments and produce sounds with their mouths by breathing loudly in and out, a technique used in beatboxing today.

Beat Box (song)

"Beat Box" is a song by the British group Art of Noise. Originally appearing as the second track on the 12" EP Into Battle with the Art of Noise, it was released as the group's first single in December 1983.

"Beat Box" is an instrumental, experimental piece that implements sounds and noises (such as car key ignitions, falling drain water, and calliope music — most notably on the chorus) to ride the rhythm of the beat (a sample of drums played by Alan White).

As a single, the song reached the lower regions of the UK Singles Chart, where it peaked at no. 92. It was more popular with dance music and (particularly) hip hop audiences, and in February 1984 the song reached no. 1 on the American dance chart, where it remained for two weeks. "Beat Box" was a hit on the Black Singles chart, where it reached no. 10. The US 7" single spent 5 weeks on the Billboard Bubbling Under chart, starting 7 April 1984 and spending two weeks at no. 101, the chart's top position.

After the original "Beat Box" grew popular, The Art Of Noise decided to expand on the tune by adding on more instruments and sounds, giving the song a completely different outlook and practically drowning out the hip hop element that now only remained in the drum beat itself. Two remix cuts resulted from this session and were initially released on 12" single in 1984 and referred to as "Diversion One" and "Diversion Two", along with the song "Moments in Love". The original unremixed version has retroactively been dubbed "Diversion Zero" by fans, though it was never officially released under this title. Other remixes were issued, and are officially subtitled variously as Diversions Three, Four, Six, Seven and Ten.