KULTURA-DIKTATURA

Great, great record, shouting at your face. And hilarious at that. KULTUR SHOCK are a bizarre potpourri of punk, metal, alter, hip-hop, folk (Balkan/Roma, Spanish Gypsy, Indo, Bosnian sevdah).

I won't go into deep analysis of music nor descriptions, let's just say the music reminds me of a most obscen debauchery, Balkan-style. And the whole picture, messy and loud as a Gypsy fair is surrounded by sincere left-winged punk angst, that is screaming and spitting it's lyrics. The result is KULTUR SHOCK - it's a cultural shock indeed, but once it's here, I'm actually surprised it didn't happened before, because it was bound to happen. IF you can read between the lines, you'll realize I like this band a lot - if someone'e existence seems so evident, it must be good to the bone.

The lyrics are derived from typical Balkan-folk lamentations about a woman, unhappy life and alcohol, distorted to the level of parody resembling, but I don't think that's the case - in predictable (yet often charming) folk lyrics, the band is often adding marijuana consumption, rakija drinking, escape from a police patrol and similar rebelry (?) clearly showing they're not ready to make any compromises in their music. Nor in their lifestyles. Such an attitude could be easy explained with bandmembers' personal stories...well, there are plenty of websites where you can check it.

Such a truth coming from a mouth of a lead singer, plus furious energy, is a sign of true milestones in rock music - and I mean THE STOOGES, THE ROLLING STONES, or THE CLASH. They sound nothing like them (well, there's a solid amount of punk within) and in fact, their music is quite complex, dynamic, daring, eclectic and whatnot but they're progressive only coincidentally. It just happened they swallowed it, That, of course, doesn't mean they're less worthy of checking out. So, here's a most sincere band in rock 'n' roll since the days of 'London Calling', it's full of different influences, excellent musicanship and irregular time signatures - like SYSTEM OF A DOWN meets GYPSY KING meets..you name it! Get it, what are you waiting for!?