This week, Balkan Express boldly goes where no Luxembourg music show has gone before. To Serbian city of Niš, the home of Stereo Banana. Grab a hold of something, we are about to take a ride.

Stereo Banana are Marko Anđelković a.k.a. Naopak and Nemanja Nedeljković a.k.a. Nemus. Naopak is the MC, while Nemus does, well, everything else. Formed in 2010, the duo is equally comfortable with hip-hop, reggae, break-beat and funk. To name but a few genres.

As with most indie bands from the Balkans, Stereo Banana are too smart for their own good. Which is why their lyrics are at the same time humorous and critical, superficial and deep, and blissfully ignorant and activist. They are, in short, a Balkan survival technique.

In fact, an anonymous internet user described Stereo Banana best, when they said that no one can play with words and sounds the way Stereo Banana can. They are the worst and the best, They are stupid losers and musical geniuses. They are prostitutes and pimps. Faster than a bullet and slower than a turtle. They see everything but do not use their eyes. They are, quite simply, Stereo Banana.

When it comes to live performances, Stereo Banana seem to be limited to Serbia. Which is a shame, given that theirs is a very urban type of music that could work in any setting, regardless of the language barrier. Which is a very roundabout way of asking if anyone could, please, book them for Luxembourg.

To date, Stereo Banana released three albums. The last one, Niške strasti (Passion in Niš), was released in 2022, to great critical acclaim and wild fandom reception. And given that each of the three albums is overflowing with energy, it seems that this duo from Niš has more things to say in the future.

And this is all the time we have for today. Check out Stereo Banana on YouTube, Bandcamp and wherever you get your music from and Balkan Express will be back next week.

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Balkan Express brings you the latest and/or the greatest in music from the Balkans. On air every Tuesday at 11am on Ara City Radio, it is hosted by Aljaž aka @pengovsky who once did the world a solid and vowed never to sing again in public. Which is how he ended up doing radio.