HaHa ! That´s an interesting little detail, Sir Cactoos. Well done!

I assumed that the Balkan Beat boxset was a compilation of various artists. I didn´t know they were a band, but as Jackhammer seems to like them I might check them out.... and can you answer your own question, Sir C ? Does it still suit to the music of the region?

In my opinion occupation of the band doesn't determine it's musical style in geographical manner. Many of BBB's songs have a great Balkan "flavour", where many connections to the region occur. We can hear it especially in their first, self-titled album. "Bulgarian Chicks", "Gross" or "Hassan's Mimuna" are the tunes with strong South-Eastern European music sight.

Israeli origin doesn't force band to follow Jewish or Middle Eastern traditions. Even very Hebrew artist, Idan Raichel, tends to experiment with other world tunes, i.e. from Africa.

I would agree that Balkan rhytmes are not main pilars of BBB's creativity, but I would stick at the point that those tunes are still relevant for their music vision.

Yes, the music of Balkan Beat Box conforms to my vague ideas of what Balkan music sounds like, and as you say, a band´s country of origin doesn´t dictate the style of their sound. That being said, I don´t think there are many bands from one country that consistently and convincingly adopt the style of another country, so that makes BBB unusual.

On the other hand, plenty of artists do what Idan Raichel does: borrow bits from all around the world so that they have a bigger range to play with.

I listened to the Bulgarian Chicks track that you mentioned, and a couple of others on Youtube, but they seemed a bit too brash and noisy to suit my mood at the moment, so maybe I´ll try some Idan Raichel. I have his 2006 album, The IR Project, though I haven´t played it much. Perhaps I´ll give it a listen this evening as it´ll be a bit more relaxing than BBB!