Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Choban: Elektrik

3

Choban: Elektrik

By

View read count
Track review of "Beratche from Prespa"

Choban: Elektrik
Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist Jordan Shapiro extends the reach of Balkan music with a gentrified twist, hinting at a New York City downtown aura amid the indigenous fundamentals that coalesce into a variegated offering. With straight-four backbeats, streaming violins, harmonious vocal chants and dreamy electronics maneuvers, the album presents a nouveau spin on traditional southeastern European folk.

"Beratche from Prespa" is an Albanian dance, treated with Shapiro's psychedelic guitar parts, concocted on grunge-rock and gravelly keyboards-based intonations. With linear progressions, the piece strikes a balance between reckless abandon, playful havoc, and a rather holistic stance, thrusting Balkan music into unshielded terrain.

Shapiro seldom forsakes the Balkan vibe, but embeds the core attributes within a layered approach, offering a sliding scale of sorts, between customary fare and post-modern expansionism. The band's divergent tactics waver between progressive rock, psycho-rock, jazzy inflections and other genre-crossing factors that fluctuate on a per-track basis. A compelling artistic statement, modeled with a clear-sighted vision that sustains interest via a highly entertaining form factor.

Personnel

Jordan Shapiro: Hammond organ, Fender Rhodes, electric guitar, accordion, piano, Ensoniq TS-12 synthesizer; Dave Johnsen: electric bass; Phil Kessler: drums, kanjira, marimba, riq, pandeiro, tuned bronze alloys.

Album information

Title: Elektrik | Year Released: 2012 | Record Label: Self Produced

Tags

Comments

About Choban

Articles | Concerts | Albums | Photos | Similar

PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.