The Ukrainian world music quartet DakhaBrakha combines rhythms and instruments from several continents with folk music from their native country. The group is scheduled to stop in Connecticut on Thursday for a performance.
The music industry seems obsessed with labels and music groups are funneled into a category like folk, rap, or punk. Then there's DakhaBrakha.
"I'm at a loss for labels when it comes to DakhaBrakha -- except for adventurous, and fun, and unique," said Bob Boilen, host of NPR's All Songs Considered who has seen the group perform many times. "There's a pulsing element that resembles rock music, but it's not rock music -- there's Ukrainian folk music involved, but that's not going to help anyone. They're in a category of their own."
DakhaBrakha labels their unique music "ethno-chaos," which may be the best way to describe it. Tight vocal harmonies blend with ancient sounding instruments and pounding drums to produce a hypnotic amalgam of sound -- ancient and primitive, but also fresh and relevant.
DakhaBrakha got its start with a theater group in Kiev in 2004. Drama not only permeates their music, but their appearance as well. They wear traditional Ukrainian garb and ridiculously tall Russian fur hats.
"I call them Marge Simpson hats," said Boilen. "The group is intense -- you'll never catch them looking at their feet when they play." Boilen counts their 2015 NPR Tiny Desk Concert as one of his favorites.
Adding to the mystique of DakhaBrakha is that they speak only a little English and rarely give interviews. "It's otherworldly, it's what I love about them," said Boilen. "When I hear their stuff, I think -- who else is doing harmonies like that, who else is making sounds like that? It's just askew from everything else I'm so used to, and it's so refreshing and beautiful."
DakhaBrakha performs Thursday night at 7:30 at the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts in Storrs.
