Tarkabarka

Balamuc are a London-based band with a global membership and a clear interest in the music of the Roma, especially its central European traditions, with a heavy emphasis on Hungarian and Romanian styles.

The line-up is fairly standard, with violin and clarinet to the fore, and most of the band capably taking on vocal duties at some point. The readings of Tarkabarka are workmanlike, somewhat staid and occasionally rather hesitant, giving the impression that the usually familiar material was learnt from books rather than listening. Performances cling to the ‘if you play a tune once you can play it again, possibly a bit faster’ principle, while the choice to play a Bulgarian kopanitsa, usually a speedy and light-footed dance at a glacial tempo is interesting, but it doesn’t quite work.

What does work is the emotionally committed version of ‘Gloomy Sunday’, traditionally known as ‘the Hungarian suicide song’, which receives a careful and properly anguished performance, with the hesitations and glitches of the vocal performance echoed in the short guitar solo. All in all, it's a reading of the song which suits the rainy, foggy island this international team have chosen for their home.