Gipsy manifesto

"Boban's son and fellow trumpeter, Marko, joined the band a dozen years ago, when he was just 13, and since then he's clearly been groomed to inherit control of the Macedonian juggernaut, with the group increasingly broadening its sound for contemporary dance floors. On the new album, the group's first in four years, the transformation has hit warp speed; witness the electronic beats, synthesizer squiggles, faux early-jazz riffs, and English lyrics of "Cokolada," or the manic embrace of trashy eastern-European pop on "Turbo Dizel" ... I understand that Marko is probably addressing the musical interests of a younger, eastern-European audience, but he may start losing the old fans".

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"Famously handed control of the orchestra on his eighteenth birthday, seven years on Marko Markovic has finally stamped his identity on every aspect of a band release - from songwriting to vocals to adopting wholesale the influence of friend and champion DJ Robert Soko. And while Dad, Boban, hasn't gone away - he produces the record - it's still and audacious and radical departure, being a set of controversial sounds that has outraged the purists ... But even the notion of a "purist", in the world of Balkan brass, is a strange one ... These old melodies, often telling of ancient rituals and needs, have never been played "authentically" as such, by Balkan brass orchestras. And this is just a further intriguing take, a new bravura funk ... Rural influence and tunes have not been abandoned. Indeed, the ferocious playing of these traditions on a grand, international and youthful stage, is exciting".