“A stunningly sophisticated collection of vital new interpretations of traditional songs from across the Balkans … a treasure trove of lovingly crafted music reflecting both innovative techniques and deep pluriform traditions.” – THE WIRE
“A beats-heavy interpretation of Balkan folk music that nods to the underground noise/industrial scenes of ‘80s Yugoslavia; it’s an intriguing listen, from “Džamahirija”, with its odd echoes of The Pop Group, to the funereal sludge-folk of “Mejremo” and haunting epic closer “Starala Sa”, where crosscurrents of strings soar and swoop like a flock of crazed birds.” – UNCUT
‘Dens’ (out now on Glitterbeat), the second album from Belgrade Ethno-Noise outfit Lenhart Tapes, boldly extends producer and Walkman alchemist Vladimir Lenhart’s acclaimed re-tooling of submerged Balkan musics. Hypnotic Walkman jams meet industrial rhythm loops and trad-folk songs interpreted by a lineup of thrilling female vocalists: Tijana Stanković, Svetlana Spajić (Gordan, Pjevačka družina) and Zoja Borovčanin (Lira Vega). A magical, beauty-and-the-beast encounter of dirty noise and righteous folk.
The glorious, sludgy Lenhart Tapes track “Mejremo” (feat. Tijana Stanković), is a slo-core blast of deep Balkan Ethno-noise. It is what the John Cale era Velvet Underground might have sounded like if they’d been Belgrade decadents rather than New York ones. Vladimir Lenhart says about the track: “there was this tune in former Yugoslavia that haunted me when I was a kid called “Sine moj”. It was sung by a Roma-Macedonian folk singer Muharem Serbezovski and it had this kind of doom metal melody that stuck in your head forever if you were a Black Sabbath fan for example. Later, I found out it is a Turkish melody, and Tijana found a Gorani version with different lyrics that was on an even deeper level on the damnation scale. Of course, it is only a song about unrequited love, which can obviously be really painful. I wanted to give this tune a noise/industrial touch to sound even more apocalyptic than my childhood feeling.”
