Please Note
No under 8s
Under 14s allowed only on the balcony – special balcony ticket required sold exclusively via Ticketmaster
Under 16s must be accompanied by an adult.
Please note that the final fees includes a £1.95 additional venue restoration fee.
Date: SATURDAY: 9 November 2024, at 19:00
Venue: O2 Forum Kentish Town – London
Address: 9-17 Highgate Rd, London NW5 1JY (stația Kentish town – Northern line)
Subcarpați are a very special mixture of Romanian traditional music, hip-hop and electro. The idea came to MC Bean, the vocalist of another Romanian band, Șuie Paparude, in 2010. He wanted to create a contemporary cultural manifesto by bringing Romanian folklore into the present, as the genre was dying because very few young people were interested in it, considering it obsolete and uncool.
Together with other musicians, Bean seeks to reinterpret popular motifs in Romanian folklore and give them a modern twist. The result is surprisingly familiar yet strange music, mixing samples of the best known voices of Romanian folklore with hip hop, dub and trip-hop beats. Top that with a touch of dubstep, and you have Romanian youths talking to their grandmas about the music they were listening to when they were 20.
Subcarpați speak with great pride about Romania’s values and traditions. The ancestral rural life is greatly missed with every melancholic cry of the oboe. It’s patriotic, but not pathetic, and aimed at the modern man, trapped in the big city, forced to cut all ties with nature and traditions. The music serves to remind us where Romanians came from as a people.
Their main principle is that “music should not be confused with showbiz“. This is why they pay very close attention to the artists they collaborate with and always try to stick to their “underground folklore” aesthetic. Subcarpați are a cultural manifesto first and a music project second, which is why all of their albums are free to download.
by Matei Bărbulescu
