The Balkans groove? Yes, indeed. What started almost twenty years ago with the first releases of mostly Romanian gypsy ensembles, dug up and recorded by Western field researchers behind the just fallen Iron Curtain, has now turned into a global club movement. Nevermind the disco trash productions of turbo folk and manele starlets in the Balkans, it was mostly Western producers and djs who, fascinated by the raw energy of the Balkan rhythms and the sweet melancholy and wild passion of Slavic and gypsy melodies, made the whole thing compatible for the dancefloor. Well, those neckbreaking Balkan tunes had always been danceable as one could witness at concerts of the leading balkan brass bands. Now it is about putting these speedniks in fancy club wear, dragging them out of the folklore corner to make it cool for the kids. Those Balkan beats get groovy. Oriental passion meets four-to-the-floor. Chilly dubstep cellars now shine with warm ornaments. Now this is also infecting other music scenes. While so-called world music djs have been jumping on the balkan train for some time now, even hip electro producers have discovered the balkan energy and the anarchistic Eastern fun - first only with timid brass samples, but now even as pimped up Balkanbeats dancehall. Still the West is setting the pace with turntable wizards like Vienna's dunkelbunt or Stefano Miele (aka Riva Starr) from Italy. There are also immigration-related culture meltings like the Bosnian-Danish project Fagget Fairys or the now Berliner Valentino Valente. Or Dobranotch from St.Petersburg and DJ Click from Paris who swap files between East and West. The West remixes the East or vice versa as with Shazalakazoo from Serbia and Watcha Clan from France. Kiril from Macedonia invites Rocker Hi-Fi's toaster to the studio. The message, that only half of the West is shiny and the future lies in the mix of both worlds, has now also arrived in the Eastern metropols. Leni Kravac (funny name, isn't?) in Ljubljana or Kottarashky in Sofia have their roots in their blood, but as modern city dwellers they help themselves from the electronic building set of Western club culture. The times of strictly separate scenes are almost over - crossover on all fronts. What was the new musical style of the last decade? There was none. Instead there were a dozen hybrids and sub genres. And that's the way it will be. Anything goes. Brass meets drum'n'bass, folk meets minimal. Everything is out there – you just have to find it and separate the wheat from the chaff. So you can skip half a year of blog surfing and instead just enjoy these nuggets that passed the Eastblok quality check. By the way, more than half of the tracks here are exclusive and previously unreleased. Eastblok proudly presents Balkanbeats 2.0 = BALKAN GROOVES.

1.	Kiril feat. Ras Tweed & Esma	Raise Up Your Hand	04:08	*
2.	Anima Sound System	Trubulek Vorba (Jutasi Remix)	03:28	*
3.	Valentino Vallente Balkan Project	Sote Khela	04:09	*
4.	Goulasch Exotica feat. EtnoRom	Kotyka	03:17
5.	Shazalakazoo	Sarmageddon	03:58
6.	Leni Kravac	Zajednica	02:41	*
7.	Watcha Clan	Balkan Qoulou (Shazalakazoo Remix)	04:07
8.	Fagget Fairys	Oci	03:28
9.	Kottarashky	Cheteri	04:33
10.	Dobranotch & DJ Click	Batuta (Dj ClicK rmx)	03:38	*
11.	Riva Starr feat. Nôze	I Was Drunk	05:01
12.	[dunkelbunt] & Cloud Tissa	Kebab Connection	04:01
13.	Imam Baildi	Samba Clarina (DJ Panko Remix)	04:27
14.	Mere Mortals feat. Mara	Perpetuum (Luna Tahina)	04:31	*
15.	La Caravane Electro	Rebetiko Song	03:59	*

	Balkantronika	Gypsytronic (Digital only)	03:50	*
	BASADUB	Moog And Slivovica (iTunes only)	03:00	*