Veseli Romi

Mile Petrović is now something of an elder statesman, still helming the Veseli Romi, most recently as a somewhat jazzy Šaban Bajramović tribute band. He's now handed over his keyboard duties to concentrate on singing, but this compilation, taken from their early mid-80s albums, showcases them as ambitious young guns, with driving dance beats. Indeed, in a strange foreshadowing, the synthesizer riff that kicks off the opening track ‘Robot’ is irresistibly reminiscent of the Vengaboys’ ‘We Like to Party’.

In those days the synthesizer was making inroads among accordion players in former Yugoslavia, and they developed a richly ornamented style, with creative use of pitch wheel and portamento. It's especially notable here on the bagpipe imitation ‘Miletova Gajde’ and the Bollywood-influenced ‘Japanka’ (Indian films were tremendously popular at the time, especially among Roma).

The music has tremendous energy, drawing almost greedily on many sources – added to the above, we can count the brass band style of southern Serbia, Bosnian rock (‘Čoček Ajd’mo u Planine’) and Mediterranean disco.

This sparkling repertoire never quite made it onto the world music scene back then, so it's wonderful to see this lovingly produced tribute introducing it to a fresh audience all these years later.