B EAST Magazine website

– post: Al Jackson

When was the last time you were set upon by beat-crazed gypsies intent on making you feel that the world isn’t shitty, that life isn’t one big fucking let-down, and actually get you smiling like a bloody idiot while jigging uncontrollably? For me it was about 4mins 54secs ago.

Many weird and wonderful things are stumbled upon when kerb-crawling the net but the video for I Was Drunk ft. Noze by tech-house sensation Riva Starr (real name Stefano Miele) certainly falls into the latter category. Well, maybe a little bit into the first one too but in a good way. It is total lunacy after all.

It’s a mash-up of Black Cat, White Cat, by controversial Serbian director Emir Kustarica and if you thought the film was an absurdist delight, just wait til you see it set to Miele’s infectious, hook-laden Balkan belter. Like the most joyously riotous, insane, crystal-meth induced shot-gun wedding homevideo ever. Watch it, watch it now.

Riva Starr’s album, If Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemonade is out on Made to Play in January 2010.

Sep 18, 2009

Never believe the hype? Or, in this case, the hyped-up diss. With the jaw-dropping GDP contraction in the Baltic States making the rest of the world feel better about their economic woes, the global press has been rife with depressing stories from that part of the world, especially Latvia, which is doing even worse than its neighbors. Newspapers talk about stores closing, glum residents, doom and gloom, and a general party pooper vibe. Few mention that Latvia’s capital Riga hosted a flamboyant Blond Parade this May to cheer up the city’s residents. Seems that others are busy lifting the Baltic spirit. The dynamic editors of Jaffa Mag, Latvia’s cool countercultural rag (which comes out even less frequently than B.East!) organised the country’s first Folk Dance Flash Mob in the center of the Old City. As my mate from Amsterdam said when watching the video, ‘Quite a few cuties there.’ Cuties or not, check it out here.