Putting an electronic beat on Balkan music seems like a cliché nowadays, but when DJ Shantel started doing it ten years ago, he set a trend that would revolutionise both Balkan music and the club scene.
The godfather of Balkan beats is coming to the AB as part of his Anarchy & Romance tour. That is the provisional title of his third album, which will be released in spring 2013. Despite the astonishing success that brought him to various big rock festivals in Europe, Shantel remains modest: “I don’t have high expectations for this album. I want to write songs and tell stories. The sound, the attitude, and the genre are all subordinate to that aim.” He himself claims to be more of a songwriter and performer. “People expect a signature sound. I hate it. But it is a good thing to have some hate in a relationship, it keeps the relationship alive. Love and hate, anarchy and romance.”
Balkan beat guru Shantel becomes a songwriter
“In Frankfurt, we have Max Horkheimer and Herbert Marcuse of the Frankfurter Schule, a sociological and philosophical movement that became popular in the 1920s using the dialectics of the Enlightenment. Frankfurt is not a very funky city, but in terms of philosophy and research, our humanist theories have always kept us at the forefront. It is often said that the foundations of the student revolts of 1968 were laid here because the students were indoctrinated by philosophers expelled from Germany by the Nazis. I want to continue that progressive, humanist tradition through my music.”
Yinglish
As a foretaste of the new album, Shantel has just released the music video “The Kiez Is Alright”. “Kiez is a word used often in Berlin, and means area or neighbourhood”, he tells us. “When I made the Jewish gangster compilation Kosher Nostra, I did a lot of research into the evolution of language use over the centuries. The word kiez was often used by criminals and nomads. It has a Slavic-Jewish root. It is currently still in regular use in German, Yiddish, and even American-English, but nobody actually knows the origin of the word. I love Yinglish, the blend of Yiddish and English. Language is often very Americanised these days. I enjoy turning the tables and trying to infiltrate Anglo-American with Middle Eastern sounds. I like playing with language.” In other words, it is not genre but language that now predominates for Shantel.
It is strange, though, that the new song sounds so much like dance/electro pop. “The video had to be polarising, not a new Bucovina Club/Electric Gypsyland clash [the former is his live band, the latter his successful Balkan beats compilations - BT]. I wanted something controversial and very energetic. And it works. I have received many reactions, positive and negative. We are appealing to new audiences in the independent and garage rock scene. Contemporary rock ‘n’ roll is incredibly boring because it doesn’t experiment anymore. I like the electro flavour of this single; it is a great challenge for the future. I am not afraid of risking my neck for something new. When I launched Bucovina Club, the press said: ‘you can’t do this’. Wrong. Music has neither morals nor nationality.”
Shantel • 14/11, 20.00, €22/25, Ancienne Belgique, boulevard Anspachlaan 110, Brussel/Bruxelles, 02-548.24.24, www.abconcerts.be
Yinglish
As a foretaste of the new album, Shantel has just released the music video “The Kiez Is Alright”. “Kiez is a word used often in Berlin, and means area or neighbourhood”, he tells us. “When I made the Jewish gangster compilation Kosher Nostra, I did a lot of research into the evolution of language use over the centuries. The word kiez was often used by criminals and nomads. It has a Slavic-Jewish root. It is currently still in regular use in German, Yiddish, and even American-English, but nobody actually knows the origin of the word. I love Yinglish, the blend of Yiddish and English. Language is often very Americanised these days. I enjoy turning the tables and trying to infiltrate Anglo-American with Middle Eastern sounds. I like playing with language.” In other words, it is not genre but language that now predominates for Shantel.
It is strange, though, that the new song sounds so much like dance/electro pop. “The video had to be polarising, not a new Bucovina Club/Electric Gypsyland clash [the former is his live band, the latter his successful Balkan beats compilations - BT]. I wanted something controversial and very energetic. And it works. I have received many reactions, positive and negative. We are appealing to new audiences in the independent and garage rock scene. Contemporary rock ‘n’ roll is incredibly boring because it doesn’t experiment anymore. I like the electro flavour of this single; it is a great challenge for the future. I am not afraid of risking my neck for something new. When I launched Bucovina Club, the press said: ‘you can’t do this’. Wrong. Music has neither morals nor nationality.”
Shantel • 14/11, 20.00, €22/25, Ancienne Belgique, boulevard Anspachlaan 110, Brussel/Bruxelles, 02-548.24.24, www.abconcerts.be
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