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‘What can you say about a band whose lead vocalist has named two of his children Avenger and Billclinton? A band whose line-up includes a spoon player, a toy maker and a computer software designer? Shukar Collective combine traditional Romanian bear-baiting tunes with cutting-edge samples and beats. But his isn’t the usual cut-and-paste ‘global dance’ cash-in. The break-beats here have multiple fractures, and have been aligned to the core material of croaky vocals and barrel bashing, in order to produce an atmospheric as well as a bombastic journey into an unknown world.’ The Independent on Sunday, UK

‘…the Romanian Gypsy band the Shukar Collective use spoons and barrels along with the latest digital effects for their modern-day ursari, or ‘bear-handler’, music. It’s not so much genre breaking as a parallel universe, vibrating at the edge of an increasingly thin-sounding mainstream.’ The Independent, UK

‘From flamenco to Hungarian café music, gypsy instrumentalists have been masters at making other people’s sounds their own. But ursari – the rowdy bear-tamer music of the north Romanian badlands – is perhaps closer to the music gypsies make for themselves in private. And it’s played not on guitars or fiddles, but on barrels and spoons, with bawled vocal accompaniment. Shukar Collective’s startling debut teams three noted ursari performers – the picturesquely named Napoleon, Tango and Clasic – with a posse of DJs and video artists from Bucharest. At its best, it coheres into something genuinely rich and strange – the earthy scat and jingling cutlery approximating a throbbing Balkan take on Jamaican raga, with half-cut laments backed by skittering drum and bass.’ Daily Telegraph, UK

‘This ground-breaking Romanian trio sound like they must be in their fifties and sixties; guttural shouters who rant and roar over music devised by much younger producers raised on hip hop, drum ‘n’ bass and dub. The outcome is an unclassifiable hybrid that is often funny, frequently exciting and sometimes bewildering. Witness ‘The Wind’ or better still, ‘Gypsy Blooz’, which would have been more accurately titled ‘Gypsy Dub’. Ordinarily Shukar Collective plays ursari – bear trainer music which utilizes wooden barrels and spoons. Thankfully, Urban Gypsy isn’t that ambitious, but it should travel far beyond Romania’s borders.’ Observer Music Monthly, UK

‘In Romania, the past is closer at hand, and so three gypsy musicians who used to work with dancing bears have teamed up with half a dozen young DJs to form the Shukar Collective… Their bears are long gone – these days they sing, scat and rap like the seasoned street performers they are, accompanied by no more than spoons and a barrel… The younger guys, led by Bucharest studio whizzes Dan Handrabur and Cristian Stanciu, create dark-hued, sparse dance tracks, often foregrounding the stand-up bass of Vlaicu Golcea. Vocals are chopped and shuffled into rhythmic chants, spiced with a pinch of fiddle or cimbalom. Generally this works well. The racing delirium of ‘Shub’ and ‘Malademna’ is forcefully effective, though ‘Taraf’ is a leaden cut-up that never achieves lift-off… Urban Gypsy is an urban record, but the harsh past and rural realities are never far away.’ The Wire, UK

‘Out next month on the World Music Network label, for example, is an album called Urban Gypsy by the Romanian Shukar Collective, traditional Ursari bear-taming music, reworked with drum ‘n’ bass and hip-hop production…’ The Times, UK

‘The veteran members of the Shukar Collective performed on Romanian streets for years, usually with a declawed bear that was sure to attract passersby. They played Ursari music (literally ‘bear tamer’ music) using basic objects such as spoons and barrels. Fortunately for them (and world music fans), they met some local DJs who’ve teamed up with them to make songs such as ‘Gipsy Blooz’, a danceable number that sounds like a barroom blast of fun.’ San Francisco Chronicle, USA

‘Shukar Collective founders Napoleon, Tamango, and Clasic create an intriguing mix of sounds and cultural influences on the collective’s latest CD, Urban Gypsy (Riverboat Records/ World Music Network). Blending Romanian underground and Gypsy traditions with electronica, the group plays “ursari” music. The word means “bear tamer,” and the music is a percussive mix of the Romanian darabuka and the primitive sounds of spoons and wood barrels. The additional technological and vocal layers, however, take Urban Gypsy near an international trip-hop vein. The insistent, upbeat “Malademna” features sampled electronic and Middle Eastern sounds over the treated percussion. A mix of chanted singing and staggered vocal rhyming makes the piece both emotive and hypnotic.’ Jazziz, USA

‘With everybody out to find a new sound, it’s no wonder the Shukar Collective have become fixtures on the European festival circuit in less than a year.’ The Courier Mail, Australia

‘Now here’s something completely different! Vintage Romanian bear tamer (ursari) singers/chanters and some unusual percussive instruments like wooden barrels and spoons, welded to wild gypsy violin, electronica and hip hop and drum ‘n’ bass beats… The resultant sound is by no means as inaccessible as one might imagine… The Shukar Collective comprises three traditional ursari musicians and half a dozen collaborators, the latter component weaving a modern sound around the (sometimes primitive; often emotive) vocalising and tonal patterning and percussion playing of the core group… the Shukar Collective deserve plaudits for marrying folkloric pieces which date back to the Tartar and Mongolian invasion of Dacia (Romania¹s ancestral name) with modern technology. By preserving the past – and the Collective certainly appear to have retained the spirit of the original – and propelling ursari music intro the future, Urban Gypsy must be considered a landmark album.’ Rhythms, Australia