Former Neutral Milk Hotel drummer and current leader of A Hawk and a Hacksaw, Jeremy Barnes compiles a list of 20 examples of his favorite Romanian music for FACT magazine:
Musicians in Romania and Hungary have given much of the best Romanian gypsy music that I have to me. It is not something that is easily found on the web or in the record bins. When I say “given” I mean I receive a CD-R with no information, or an entire iPod’s contents are transferred to my computer. […] There is also a lot of good stuff in Romania from the 20th century that I have left out. This is basically a survey of some of my favourites, starting with the Gregoras Dinicu, who were born in 1898, and leading up to the very modern garage recordings by Casian Tian, who is still working today (I think).
You can download a six-track, 14 minute long mini-mix. It’s wild. Makes me wanna dance around and smash stuff.
