TAKESHI EXPRESS

"The Austrian group Nifty's focuses on a mixture of klezmer and eastern-European folk music. The band exists out of two guitarists, a trumpet player, bassist and percussionist. Not the usual line up for a klezmer band, a bit fewer trumpets one might think. Nifty's shows on this Takeshi express that a band only needs one good trumpet player to create a real nice brass effect. This Nifty's is not just a standard Balkan influenced band, they are much more than that. I hear great progressive-rock influences in one of my favourite tunes Kelomatics, a nice jazz touch in Sirba to floreshty. But mostly this is great klezmer like music played with passion and in a fresh new way. Although the guitars and trumpet are on the main ground, they wouldn't be sounding this good without the strong fundament created by the bass and well done percussion. Listen to Unza waltz in which they bring together all the things I mentioned above, good straight, but effective, percussion, nice rocky guitar intermezzo and a good Klezmer like melody on the trumpet. Interesting cd, this Takeshi express has much more to offer than the standard klezmer or brass orientated bands." (Eelco Schilder, www.folkworld.de)