It's hard not to be drawn in by the insistent energy of Balkan Beat Box’s "Nu Med." By and large an instrumental record with crowd noises, sound effects and a polyglot of styles, this 14-track dance party includes hardly a moment's rest. On "Digital Monkey," one of the vocal center pieces, Tomer Yosef intones, "I come from the Middle East / But I belong to no country." That pretty much sums up the ethos and sound. The expletives on "Hermetico" may offend some listeners, but its mix of influences is equal parts sublime and hilarious, like, for instance, when a big "boo-ya" is followed by a rooster's crow.

The basic framework is a strong danceable backbeat like on "Hab-bibi min zaman," with   sturdy, almost ostinato bass line underneath and above it all the musical Cuisinart blending everything from electric guitar melodies that blew in off the steppes to Celtic melodies in Middle Eastern drag to a jagged slide guitar exit from "Mexico City."

By Salvatore Caputo