I can almost guarantee you, if you’ve never heard the band Farmers Market then you’ve never heard anything remotely like it.
Farmers Market is from Norway, but their style and influences stretch far beyond their nation’s borders. Mostly they are influenced by Bulgarian folk music. However, they take that already frantic style of music and smoosh it together with surf rock, heavy metal, progressive rock and even bluegrass. You could call their style fusion and it would be very accurate, because they fuse just about every genre imaginable into their music.
They are a five piece band, but even their instrumentation is unique: Trifon Trifonov (sax and clarinet), Stian Carstensen (accordion, guitar, banjo), Nils-Olav Johansen (guitar and vocals), Jarle Vespestad (drums) and Finn Guttormsen (bass).
Farmers Market first came on my radar because of their association with the band Estradasphere. They appeared as a bonus on Estradasphere’s DVD Passion for Life in 2002. They play this ultra-high speed medley of gypsy music that sounds like a Balkan death metal band. Wild stuff!
About five years later, they signed with Mike Patton’s Ipecac label which made it easier to acquire their music here in the United States. (Their previous record from 1995, Speed / Balkan / Boogie, was only available as a pricey import on the Norwegian label Kirkelig Kulturverksted). The album they released on Ipecac in 2008 was called Surfin’ USSR and is today’s pick!
Ipecac has a nice bio on their website with interesting details about all the members of the group.
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As the title implies, the record is loosely themed on Russian culture, from the artwork to the humorous song titles, but the songs are mostly instrumental.
The title song kicks off the album, broken up into two parts. Both parts are like a mathy surf rock band. Like The Ventures and Don Caballero joined forces with a klezmer band.
Here is the studio version of “Surfin’ USSR Part 1”:
Here is Farmers Market performing it live with KORK (Norwegian Radio Orchestra) which is even more powerful because of the larger ensemble:
Part two ups the ante: an even faster more frantic tune:
The album Surfin’ USSR takes a wild left turn after those two songs. Farmers Market launches into a bizarre cover of Gerry and the Pacemaker’s “Ferry Cross the Mersey” (which they call “Lodtschitze Mini Maritza”). Its a mashup of the original song with the John Barry / Nancy Sinatra song “You Only Live Twice”. Somehow, it works:
Farmers Market performed that with KORK as well:
One of my favorite songs on Surfin’ USSR is “To Hell and Baku” which takes Bulgarian folk music and mixes it with prog metal! Heavy!
Another interesting variation on their sound is “Sisters Camel Call” which displays a very Middle Eastern influence. If you like Secret Chiefs 3 (like I do), you’ll love this one:
Another highlight is “One Day, Son, All I Own Will Still Belong to the State” which even has a cool, oddly syncopated drum solo at the end:
Another awesome tune is “Red Square Dance” which is almost like a multi-part progressive rock suite stretching out to almost 8 minutes!
The whole hour long record is pretty head-spinning!
Farmers Market played jazz festivals after the release of Surfin’ USSR. Here is some tantalizing footage of them playing at Mela 2008:
From what I can tell, Farmers Market still performs today, but they rarely release albums. Their last album was Slav to the Rhythm in 2012. While I’d love to hear more music from the group, there is plenty to chew on with Surfin’ USSR. I’ve been listening to it regularly since it originally came out and I’m still hearing new stuff every time I give it a spin.
