Party: Antwerp Gipsy-Ska Orkestra

Party: Antwerp Gipsy-Ska Orkestra

Antwerp Gipsy-Ska Orkestra (Gipsy/Ska)

Gregor Engelen (vocals/trumpet)
Mukti Gabriels (guitar/backing vocals)
Filip Vandebril (bass)
Suhamet Latifi (keyboards)
Roel Poriau (drums/samples)
Nathan Daems (tenor/alto/soprano sax/backing vocals)

Antwerp city, with its harbor, has always been a melting pot of different cultures. The Antwerp Gipsy-Ska Orkestra reflects that openness in an intriguing way; six musicians with very diverse musical backgrounds have teamed up to combine the pure, raw energy of authentic Roma Gipsy melodies with the ultra-danceable ska groove.

This band has it all! A charismatic front man, street credibility, incredible energy on stage, a vast variety of styles and rhythms that stretch the boundaries of what we know as ska music, striking melodies that soar with joy and dive with melancholy, improvisational skills to match a jazz combo and best of all… their own sound that is so rich and natural that one can’t help but wonder why nobody came up with this idea before.

You can see that classifying AGSO as just another ska band would be a mistake that one is not likely to make
after seeing them at work.

Based solely on their live reputation they played the Melkweg (Amsterdam) with Balkan Beat Box and left the audience screaming for more. A few months later they performed at the prestigious Eurosonic festival in the ‘Stadsschouwburg’ (after the Magic Numbers) which confirmed their popularity status and has them headlining many festivals in the Netherlands and Belgium.

The debut CD which was released in June 2007, was unanimously applauded by the Belgian Press as a masterpiece, terms like all hits, no misses got the band many interviews and frequent airplay on Belgium’s Radio 1. Since the last of the band’s illegal immigrants received his permit to stay just before the release, “Tuttilegal” seemed an appropriate title.

€7 inkom