Happy Machine

The high-energy high jinks of this group from Bosnia and Herzegovina work a sort of reverse Balkanisation. Which is to say, they take alien elements – ska, reggae, hip-hop, metal, punk, electronica and their own native modalities with their Slavic and Turkish influences – and make of them a viable boundary-busting sound, which they’re now exporting across Europe and North America. The results are theatrical and at the same time politically incisive in the lyrics, which are mostly in English and occasionally Spanish. They can be heard and seen to irresistible effect on the video for the track ‘Free.MP3 (The Pirate Bay Song)’ on YouTube. ‘No Escape (from Balkan)’ could refer to the track's own embedded echoes of Turkish Janissary bands, most clearly audible in the slithery reed work of saxophonist Mario Ševarac and guest Macedonian trumpeter Dzambo Agusevi.

The vocal delivery of Adis Zvekić and Almir Hasanbegović channels declamatory hip-hop, in a Balkan accent that can seem both forthright and funny. We should be grateful, but not surprised, that the Kolektiv were lured to the wider world and signed by Bill Gould of the San Francisco alternative metal group Faith No More to his own label. The Happy Machine of the album title derives from a still that is used in the production of the heady regional brandy rakija, which would go down just fine with this global fusion party music.