With his films (1995) and (1998), the Yugoslavian-born director Emir Kusturica achieved fame among art house film enthusiasts. Music has always played a major role in Kusturica's films. The question is whether without Kusturica the wild brass band music of the Serbian gypsies would have been picked up outside the Balkans. He wrote (or edited) much of the music in Kusturica's films himself with
… his own No Smoking Orchestra. On this album, too, Kusturica and his orchestra interpret the folk music of the Balkans as always with a fearless punk feeling. In addition to the excessively hopping trumpets, the music sometimes also goes in the direction of , courtesy of Kusturica's crude voice. In the opening track there are even some Mexican influences and that is where The No Smoking Orchestra sounds at its best. (PdK)more
