Balkan Beat Box

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More About

• Tamir Muskat
• Asia (Band)
• Tel Aviv
• World Music
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media

Israeli-born New Yorkers Ori Kaplan and Tamir Muskat have a lot up their sleeves—and under their hats and in their pockets and stuffed under the sofa. And whatever's down their pants makes them indefatigable danceaholics at home on floors from Kazakstan to the South Bronx. In fact, as the principals leading the wildly eclectic international collective Balkan Beat Box, Kaplan and Muskat would seem to have squirreled away hundreds of world-music artifacts, all to be summoned by the crazy rhythms of contemporary beats and electronica. Actually, BBB primarily stick to Mediterranean realms, if that can be stretched to include the Eastern European origins of klezmer, the smart-ass downtown scene of Lower Manhattan, the Southern California home of surf guitar, and toasting's Jamaican roots. Pretty much anything is fair game, as long as it's exotic, cutting-edge, and audacious, as the BBB boys push politics aside for an endless party that easily transports listeners from Tel Aviv to Istanbul, Mexico City, Rio, and Sofia within just a few bars.
Sun., Sept. 14, 7 p.m., 2008