Bogovi

Tapan are a Belgrade based production duo whose debut album Europa came out earlier this year. Tapan, I found out, can also mean a drum used in Balkan and Turkish music. The five track album relies heavily on percussion and rhythm along with local instrumentation. Europa was written as a response to the migrant crisis of 2015 and 2016 and the route that many migrants took, through Turkey, Greece and the Balkans, to a Europe that decided it didn't want them and turned them away. Tapan wrote 'Europa was recorded during long jam sessions in Belgrade as the media spotlight started to dim. The city became the purgatorial destination for a large number of migrants, whose journeys had been cut short'.

Third track Bogovi is the soundtrack to a nocturnal trek- industrial rhythms, slashing guitar chords and horns, a journey though the dark. Strong stuff and worth some of your time.