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Balkanbeats are hot these days, what with Gogol Bordello, Balkan Beatbox, Goran Bregovic and others cashing in on the West’s desire to let loose, turn into wild gypsy brides and go beastly to pumped-up brass, Klezmer grooves, ethnic tunes, trash-pop, bagpipes and other synthesis of guitar-rock, dance and folksy instruments and attitude.

Few have captured the zeitgeist as well as Berlin’s Eastblok Record Label (www.eastblokmusic.com) who recently released BALKANBEATS3 has some great tracks including Goran Bregovic’s dancy Gas Gas and The No Smoking Orchestra’s soulful Dobrila, in addition to Slovansky Bal’s Moscow Fever. The selection is compiled by DJ Robert Soko.

B EAST brings you a selection right to your desktop. So jangle your beads and rock to The No Smoking Orchestra’s Dobrila.

Representatives of Bjork have insisted that the singer was forced out of Serbian festival EXIT due to her views on Kosovo.

The singer claimed she was dropped from the July event because of what she said onstage recently in Tokyo in support of the region gaining its impendence.

EXIT’s organiser Bojan Boscovic then issued a statement denying that the singer had been not dropped for her views, or that Bjork had ever been cancelled.

However Bjork’s management have issued to following statement to NME.COM claiming that they were told politics was the reason she would not be allowed to play, and said that the festival had cancelled her performance.

The statement reads as follows:

“Bojan Boscovic, General Manager of the Exit Festival in Serbia, said in an email to Bjork’s representatives, that, quote: ‘We hope Bjork does not relate to Kosovo on other concerts here in Europe, nor in her interviews, because if she does we need to cancel the concert; if this happens, we may as well look for some other artist, or see what is available’.”

Her management added: “The coverage of dedicating her song ’Declare Independence’ to Kosovo at two recent shows in Japan was so widely covered in print and online media that the festival had no option but to cancel her performance. We will replace this event with another show in due course.”

Other acts at EXIT, one of Eastern Europe’s most rocking music festivals, include the Sex Pistols, Primal Scream, Deep Dish, Sven Vath, Ministry & Gogol Bordello. www.exitfest.org

Watch Bjork’s ‘Declare Independence’ video here…

If sex were a marketable commodity, Fidelity Kastrow would be a millionaire. Wait a minute, it is… so why hasn’t Kastrow been crowned queen of Europe’s nightclubs yet?

Probably because she spends as much time with her nose buried in textbooks as she does conducting dance floor orgies from the DJ booth.

With a chugging dance floor hit called “I Like it 69”, Fidelity lives up to her reputation as a nymphomaniac with a dual addiction for groove. One promoter described her tunes as “sex-soaked electro”. You’ll have to catch her regular sets in Berlin and the UK to find out if that’s true.

Best of all, she’s a BEAST. Fidelity grew up in East Berlin, and returns often to play clubs like the legendary Tresor. Last summer she popped up at Club Porat in Vodice, Croatia, and the Neofest Peace Festival in Banja Luka, Bosnia.

Interview by - Joel Alas – joel@beastnation.com

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