J.U.F
"Gogol Bordello vs. Tamir Muskat"

Gogol Bordello lead singer and visionary Eugene Hutz has been exporting music from obscure,

far-flung corners of the Earth into the listening range of loyal denizens of his weekly DJ night at the underground New York hotspot known as Mehanata (meaning “little tavern”), also known as the Bulgarian Bar.  Located on Broadway and Canal in the heart of downtown New York, Mehanata is an unprepossessing but charming venue.  Its modest appearance is such that passers-by would never suspect that, on any given Thursday night, Mehanata is the site of a frenzied dance party where a trans-global, melting pot crowd swells to fresh sounds of Balkan, Turkish, dancehall, Rai and flamenco beats.  For nearly three years, DJ Hutz has been the creative force behind these nights and his now distinctive DJ stylings, often blended with live music, have helped confer upon Mehanata its legendary status.

 

As Hutz’s DJ-ing developed into a discipline of its own and word of Mehanata began to spread across borders, Hutz found himself doing DJ gigs worldwide, often alongside Gogol Bordello’s European tour dates in cities such as Prague, London, Berlin, etc.  Over time, the two disciplines began to complement each other and eventually led to unexpected and fresh ideas for Gogol Bordello.  The band began to experiment with a DJ approach to their already distinctive gypsy punk rock sound.  The band invited some likeminded friends and musicians to contribute to early recordings, and the project known as “J.U.F” began to take shape.

 

J.U.F. -- which stands for Jewish Ukrainian Freundschaft -- is a nickname that comments on Gogol Bordello’s ethnic line-up and is also a humorous nod to one of their favorite bands, D.A.F (which stands for Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft), the groundbreaking 80’s German industrial punk band. J.U.F is comprised of members of the rock collective Gogol Bordello, including lead singer Eugene Hutz, guitarist and beat master Oren Kaplan and former Gogol saxophonist Ori Kaplan. Gogol Bordello also invited Israeli ingénue Victoria Hanna and Tamir Muskat who worked on their last album “Multi Kontra Culti vs. Irony” to co-produce J.U.F and help create the album’s driving sound. J.U.F. collaborators Ori Kaplan and Tamir Muskat more recently have formed their own musical outfit, Balkan Beat Box.

 

Appropriately titled “Gogol Bordello vs. Tamir Muskat,” J.U.F. is an organic extension of Gogol Bordello’s sonic vision and a mind-blowing effort that blends disparate forms of rebel music -- such as gypsy, reggae and Rai -- with industrial rock and a punk ethos.  Although J.U.F. primarily is a DJ project, Hutz points out that the DJ aspect is “more about the mixing board in your mind than the mix on the deck. It’s not really about putting on some turntables and scratching. It’s more about, letting the mix in your head come out through the fingertips.”

 

J.U.F aims to stretch the boundaries of musical possibility and relies deeply on musical prowess rather than on gimmicks or electronics. “For me, there was no line between live Gogol Bordello shows and DJ-ing.  Why should there be? Both live and electronic music-making have their own limitations, but screw that… we want them to illuminate each other and so we applied our own original direction and that’s how Electronic Gypsy Punk was born.”

 

Gogol Bordello seamlessly incorporates J.U.F repertoire into their live set, and has recently introduced a new member, Rea Mochiach, who now operates the bass and electronic station for Gogol Bordello.  “Adding a bassist to our line-up just brings us closer to our dream of creating the most perfect and ultimate form of what we call ghetto f**k music,” says Hutz. 

 

“Although this music is radical and risky, I think it’s exactly what needs to be done now,” says Hutz. “The culture of musical experience seems to be deteriorating in a way where there is only sameness. I wanted J.U.F to be extreme, so we created an alarming mixture of stuff that almost defies any sort of categorization other than WHAT THE F**K STYLE might as well JOIN GYPSY PUNK PARTY.”

 

Hutz began to test several J.U.F tracks at Mehanata, and songs such as “Gypsy Part of Town” and “When I Was a Little Spy” quickly became Bulgarian Bar classics and underground hits.  It was around this time that Stinky Records discovered the Bulgarian Bar and added Gogol Bordello’s sister project to their roster.

 

J.U.F.’s genre-busting album “Gogol Bordello vs. Tamir Muskat” was released on Stinky in September 2004. The album’s release was followed up by a successful, extensive U.S. tour by Gogol Bordello, featuring live performances by Gogol Bordello of J.U.F material.

Since 2001, Gogol Bordello has established itself as one of today’s critically acclaimed and culturally important rock bands. Billboard Magazine called Gogol Bordello’s live show “a musical experience like none other and one that will have you clamoring for more” and CMJ New Music Monthly labeled them New York’s “best rock band.” They have performed at some of the world’s most prestigious art institutions including The Whitney Biennial, The Tate Modern and The Venice Biennale and were featured in Scott Crary’s documentary “Kill Your Idols” along with The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and Jim Sclavunos of the Bad Seeds among others. “Kill Your Idols” premiered at the Tribeca Film festival and took home the award for The Best NY Documentary Feature.  In addition, in Fall of 2005, Gogol Bordello frontman Eugene Hutz marked his acting debut, co-starring with Elijah Wood in the acclaimed feature film adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer’s best-selling novel “Everything Is Illuminated”, directed by actor Liev Schreiber.

Want more information about J.U.F. and its sister bands Gogol Bordello and Balkan Beat Box? Then, check out www.gogolbordello.com and www.balkanbeatbox.com.

 

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