The Jimmy Barka Experience are named after Džimi Barka, character from an old Serbian film called When I'm Dead and Gone and played by Dragan Nikolić. Their first on-stage appearance was back in 2010. Since then, they've been around the block a couple of times and even opened for Ursula Rucker, Gramatik and Parov Stelar on occasion.
Blaž Mencinger (Balkan Express 175)
Blaž Mencinger started out as a guitarist in a jazz band. Which is about as weird a career move as you can make in Slovenia. I mean, jazz bands are literally nothing short of an expensive hobby. But by late 2020, he was already making a name for himself as a singer/songwriter.
Smetnaki (Balkan Express 174)
Nominally, Smetnaki straddle the cross-section between ska, punk and funk. The band themselves insist that they are not bound to any specific genre. But listen closely and you'll hear jazz in all its forms. Check them out on this week’s Balkan Express
AKA Neomi (Balkan Express 169)
When does a band stop being a band and/or becomes another band? While maybe not holding the answer, Slovenian indie-pop-trip-hoppers AKA Neomi sure know how to pose the question. More on this on this week's Balkan Express.
Gušti (Balkan Express 164)
Today it seems weird, to borrow a phrase, thinking that it took Gušti this long to step behind the microphone and do his thing. But such is life. Check out this week's Balkan Express to learn more about this prolific singer/songwriter.
Koala Voice (Balkan Express 163)
Koala Voice were the very first band featured on Balkan Express. That was back in the early days of the pandemic. In the mean time, the band released two more albums and have morphed from an up-and-coming band into a mainstay of Slovenian indie scene.
Masharik (Balkan Express 160)
Masharik hail from Radovljica, a town in North-Central Slovenia. They are a curious combination of old and new music as they carry more than a few references to the flower-power era, both musically and visually. Check them out in this week’s Balkan Express.
Masayah (Balkan Express 158)
Masayah is an outlier in the small hip-hop community of Slovenia. Not only because her unique dedication to her work but also because she didn’t really start out as an inveterate hip-hop artist. Check her out in this week’s Balkan Express on Ara City Radio.
Fed Horses (Balkan Express 155)
Fed Horses are, primarily, Urša and Jure Mihevc, whose on- and off-stage partnership is the driving force of the whole thing. Over the years, the band’s additional lineup stabilized around guitarist Andraž Mazi, bass player Matej Tekavčič and drummer Enos Kugler. Check them out on Balkan Express on Ara City Radio.
Tetkine Radosti (Balkan Express 150)
The wonderfully weird thing about Tetkine Radosti, a Slovenian DJ collective, is that they actually raid long-forgotten stashes of vinyl, singles, LPs and EPs, usually laying in some dusty corner of a non-descript antiques shop. In there, they will find musical rarities from former Yugoslavia and mix them all together into their signature sound.
freekind. (Balkan Express 148)
Freekind are Croatian pianist and vocalist Sara Ester Gredelj and Slovenian drummer Nina Korošak Serčič. The two met in Austria (which, some Germans would argue, is a Balkan country, too), and kicked off a collaboration in 2019 which seems to be destined for greatness.
Astrid- (Balkan Express 143)
Astrid’s lyrics are a mix of Slovenian, Croatian and English. She is her own songwriter, video director and conceptual designer, but also a classically educated harpist and opera singer in the electro-pop genre.
Activism abroad: "Sleeping with Pengovsky"
"Sleeping with Pengovsky" is the name of Aljaz's blog. In our interview on Local Matters, he tells us what his perspective as a Luxembourg resident can contribute to the discourse on Slovenian politics.