In our relentless quest for the perfect Gypsy music this time we're visiting the Czech Republic where the local Indies Scope label offers us two new releases.
Gipsy.cz (born Radek Banga), who tries to marry Gypsy music with hip-hop, didn't leave a big impression. At best 'Reprezent' offers something resembling a Gypsy version of the formula that made Orishas famous ('Dokud Dejcham', 'Gejza Usti'), but the rest of the tracks bring back memories of a bad Eastern European Eurovision entry. Original idea, but poor execution.
Fortunately, 'More, Love!', the latest album from the Czech Republic's Gypsy pride Terne Čhave, is of a whole different level. The fact these gentlemen like a joke is proven by the title choice for the album as 'More, Love!' has a very different meaning in Romani (translating to something like "here with your money!"). Terne Čhave successfully manages to combine authentic Gypsy music with rock, something they like to describe as Rom'n'roll. Nice twist to the classic Gypsy formula.