I just bought the soundtrack to this film (and I hope this is my last post related to Mr. Cohen, although it seems that this pledge has been made before and not adhered to). It’s hot stuff - like one could already grasp sitting in the theatre and shaking one’s head to the rhythm of the predominantly Balkan beats.

Borat’s geographical confusion, e.g. that the movie’s Kazakhstan scenes were shot in Albania and that he speaks in a gibberish of Eastern European tongues and Jiddish, is well reflected on the soundtrack as well, as it is a who-is-who of Eastern European modern folklore artists.

Der Spiegel has a wonderful article about the soundtrack:

The soundtrack is not only mix of rather traditional material (like Roma singer Usniya Redzepova) with arrangements of Kusturica-composer Goran Bregovic, but it also uses modern Balkan beats of musicians like the Frankfurt-based DJ Shantel or the Ukrainian German Popov aka OMFO.

(…)

“Just like Cohen in his movie, I like to use my music to play with cultural stereotypes.” He likes to use keyboards, echoes and other effects to create the tinny sound of restaurant bands in Tashkent.

As you can see above, MTV Germany has already taken up the hype (see video here). The Bucovina Meets Borat Tour featured DJ Shantel, winner of the BBC Club Global World Music Award in 2006. Shantel is one of the main people behind the progressive Essay Recordings. Essay Recordings are the home to some of the soundtrack’s artist, so for example Odessa-born OMFO aka German Popov and of course DJ Shantel.

I also found a Borat look-alike in the video of one of Essay Recording’s newest releases. Boom Pam - Hatul VeHatula, a band from Tel Aviv, produced by DJ Shantel himself:

More music after the jump.

DJ Shantel live in Porto:

Goran Bregovic: