Opa Hey!

On first glance, young producer Kottarashky could be seen as some slow-off-the-mark Johnny-come-lately. The Balkans are, after all, a territory trod by plenty of dance music DJs and remixers in recent years, most notably Shantel and Basement Jaxx‘s Felix Buxton. But this is a project that’s the most subtle excursion so far, a long way removed from merely super-charging existing recordings with four-to-the-floor beats. Kottarashky's electronic embellishments serve as gentle accompanists, nudging and cajoling rather than colonising the music. The beats are part of an ensemble, and complement spirals of region-specific clarinet, mournful fiddle riffs and ghostly voices drawn from dusty old field recordings.

That Kottarashky is an architect for his day job makes perfect sense. With Balkan folk traditions as his foundations, he's built something that bears his signature, mixing and matching styles but remaining true to his grand design. An obvious point of comparison would be the Gotan Project‘s re-directing of tango towards the 21st century, a project brought to mind here by the loping dub bass lines and snatches of accordion on tunes such as ’Long Song‘ and ’Tempe‘. Narrated by those brief, repeated vocal samples, the songs are richly evocative of modern Eastern Europe, finding the intriguing point where regional and global culture butt heads. But this is no confrontation – the young chap’s clear talents at sonic collage have ensured a unified and balanced work. Purists will probably choose to give it a wide berth, but they'd be ill-advised to do so: Opa Hey! is a tremendously beguiling record.