Balkan Reggae

Mahala Rai Banda

Since the early 60s, Jamaican music has rocked the world. Similarly, following the fall of the Berlin Wall, Romanian Gypsy musicians made a similar impression on the West with their furious brass bands. Mahala Rai Banda’s acclaimed 2009 album Ghetto Blasters featured a track entitled "Balkan Reggae," a swinging instrumental that showed how Eastern instruments could embrace a very Caribbean flavor. Reggae DJs across Europe began dropping the tune in their sets, and the group soon reached out to their Jamaican brethren and requested dub remixes of the track, the best of which are collected here. Featured DJs include Mad Professor, Nick Manasseh (featuring dread DJ Gregory Fabulous), Jstar, G-Vibes (featuring acclaimed Brixton blues man Errol Linton), Vibronics, Kanka and Asphalt Tango artists La Cherga and Koby Israelite.

Price: $21.98