| Quick spins: Robert Soko's 'Balkan Beats Soundlab' fuses tradition, technology Dec 31st 2012, 23:15 The brainchild of Berlin-based Yugoslavian immigrant Robert Soko, "Balkan Beats Soundlab" offers lavish proof that gypsy punk and Eastern European dance music are hardly the exclusive province of popular U.S. bands such as Gogol Bordello and DeVotchKa. On these 17 tracks, Soko (a.k.a. the "Godfather of Balkan Beats") remixes club favorites by just about anybody who's anybody on the contemporary Slavic music scene, fusing tradition and technology to consistently galvanizing effect. Read full article >>   |  | Quick spins: Donovan Quinn's gauzy, gorgeous 'Honky Tonk Medusa' Dec 31st 2012, 23:13 California-based singer-songwriter Donovan Quinn gained notoriety as a member of the critically admired psych-rock outfit Skygreen Leopards, but he has come into his own as a solo artist, most appreciably with last year's "Honky Tonk Medusa." The album is a gorgeous, gauzy confection recalling the offhand ease and casually degenerate quality of the great, underrated Lou Reed solo album "Coney Island Baby." Quinn possesses a natural knack for melody combined with a dark sensibility that occasionally verges on the frighteningly noir-ish. Read full article >>   | | A little Vienna to sing in the new year Dec 31st 2012, 23:06 If your idea of a great New Year's Eve (or, more accurately in this case — a New Year's Eve's Eve) celebration is solid and well-honed professionalism, then the National Gallery was the place to be on Sunday for its "Viennese New Year's Concert" This year it was the Gallery's Vocal Ensemble accompanied by pianist Maribeth Gowen and violinist Elizabeth Field that plumbed the repertoire of 19th century waltzes and operetta favorites for traditional seasonal offerings and, with a glitch or two, they did so very competently. Read full article >>   | |
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