A Serbian proverb says, "To set fire to a church is not so bad as to speak ill of a virgin." So true. We have had many, many requests for a BALKANIZE! CD over the past several months, a recent plea from as far away as Kuwait. I was not aware that we had much of a fan base in Kuwait.
Ah, as the Georgian proverb tells us, "Blood vessels are not cleaned with blood." In any case, please know that BALKANIZE! hears and trembles at the shrill lament of the beloved and downtrodden people and hopes to celebrate the first year of its ethnomusicogypsoturkobalkanatolian struggle with a CD before Spring 2008 ... Summer at the latest, with Fall 2008 as a reasonable worst-case scenario, followed, of course, by Winter.
The far-wandering Romani tell us, "The Gypsy church was made of pork, and the dogs ate it." You see, unbeknownst to all but the inner circle of the BALKANIZE! Liberation Army, we had already recorded and mixed our first CD back in September 2007 in a studio in Istanbul, tentatively titled "Adrianople Calling: BALKANIZE!'s Greatest Hits, Volume 1" ... but the master tapes were lost, along with 29 people and several suitcases of counterfeit Euros, in an eight-person rubber raft that capsized and sank at midnight somewhere between Albania and the coast of southeastern Italy. These things happen.
"One does not get crucified, one crucifies oneself," a Bulgarian proverb teaches us. So, bear with us, onyx-eyed and true-thinking warriors of the BALKANIZE! Liberation Army! We'll definitely have something on the market by Macedonian Liberation Day, 2011, at the latest. "Don't sell the fish that is still swimming in the ocean," as the Turkish proverb warns.
In the meantime, do not be duped by knock-offs, imitators and wannabes; it has come to our attention that the black market teems with unofficial, unauthorized, unlicensed, and inauthentic recordings bearing the BALKANIZE! brand. Please understand that we had nothing to do with "It's a BALKANIZE! Heavy Metal Kazoo Kwaanza!" that is currently selling in every bazaar from Sarajevo to Gaziantep.
Ruminate on the old Armenian wisdom that reminds us, "Stand away from dwarfs, for it's God who hit them on the head."
So true.
Pozdrav,
Geoff, BALKANIZE!