Ten years after the release of their legendary album 'Band Of Gypsies', Taraf de Haïdouks presents this successor. On the original 'Band Of Gypsies' album they were already joined by some members of Kocani Orkestar, but for this album all members of both bands were assembled into one 27-piece orchestra. All songs for 'Band Of Gypsies 2' were written and arranged especially for the album, something which because of the different origin and composition of both bands (the members of Taraf de Haïdouks are Romanian Orthodox Christians and the musicians of Kocani Orkestar Macedonian Muslims) wasn't always easy.

Almost simultaneously the Asphalt Tango label releases 'Balkan Brass Battle'; as the title suggests, not just a collaboration but a head to head sound-clash between the two best known Gypsy brass bands of the past decade: in the right corner for Serbia, Boban I Marko Markovic Orchestra and in the left corner, for Romania, Fanfare Ciocarlia. We won't go into who eventually won this clash of the titans, but take our word for it that this disc is a chunk of pure energy.