As our Barnum-like promotional campaign for the next Lowup party at Recyclart – 26th of October, block the date – thunders on, we are getting an increasing amount of emails, letters, faxes and carrier pigeons with pressing questions such as:

Who is Don Fiasko?

In 1998 a jam session among friends turns into a proper Afro-Latin percussion workshop and the members soon start playing out under the name Don Fiasko. Playing out is to be taken literally, as the modus operandi of this twelve-headed dragon from Mons, Belgium is to perform walking around town centres, village fairs, festival sites, corporate events and the like, sometimes for hours on end. Eye to eye with their audience the players adapt to the circumstances, at times pausing to interact with the public or -on the contrary- endlessly stretching out the most trance-inducing rhythmic patterns until all resistance is broken.

The group gradually expands its gigging radius to the neighbouring countries and even makes it to Dubai and the Republic of Benin, where they exchange tricks of the trade with local musicians steeped in voodoo heritage. A second trip to Benin yields the feature length documentary “Un costard pour la transe”.

After ten years of working their magic in the streets Don Fiasko decide to take to the stage and create an hour and a half long spectacle of tribal percussion and primal chant, spiced up with bad-ass borsalino hats, weird woodwinds and horns and a sprinkling of samples, breakbeats and sub bass jolts.

Fifteen years in the game, Don Fiasko is a spectacular marching band as well as a spectacular stage act. They have just released a 7″ vinyl, available exclusively at concerts.