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2007 release. Eastblok Music presents the second album by Romanian act and electro-dance band, Shukar Collective. The collective idea was born when DJ Vasile and Dan Handrabur heard the original Roma songs of the Shukar original band. Immediately after, the musicians from these different generations met and decided to try and create a new project with a new and contemporary sound. "We wanted to bring together Roma singers and a group of musicians and DJs to form and create a unique sound, the Shukar Collective sound," explains Dan Handrabur. The final result was the highly-acclaimed debut album Urban Gypsy, released in 2005. And now, to prove that Urban Gypsy was no flash in the pan, the Collective are back with their second effort. The album's title Rromatek is a pun, combining the two words that define this album: Roma and technology. Having moved on from the rewarding but often awkward integration phase, when two very different cultures were making music together for the first time -- the rural Ursari singers, stemming from a long line of bear-taming street performers, and the urban musician. Now, the DJs have unearthed the roots of what bear tamers do best -- making people dance. Whereas the previous album took shape in the studio, Rromatek captures the spirit of the band in motion, with vocals being recorded in hotel rooms, backstage at concerts or during jams in buses. With the addition of a drummer and a horn player, a more organic sound is evident throughout the album, although the band has lost none of its electro-spice. This is a world-music idea, an audio-visual project, a mix of generations of musicians, a re-arranging of traditional Romanian and Roma sounds, and an eclectic mixture of spoons, wooden barrels, violins, accordions, bass, roots vocals, samples, sequencers, loops, scratches, turntables and beats. Shukar Collective's mission remains that of exposing the brilliant traditional vocal performance of the Ursari Roma (incorrectly called gypsies) while working towards total acceptance of this minority into a tolerant, modern day society.
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