By George Robinson

This spring and early summer has seen more major releases by heavy-hitting Jewish music names than any single season I can remember in over a decade of writing this column. And the comparative unknowns arc accounting for some impressive music as well.

Say what you will about postmodernism in other areas of endeavor, but in music it has been a delicious wake-up call, a practical example of the (admittedly few) benefits of globalization. And the members of Balkan Beat Box, with their second album, are the poster boys for it. This set is a glorious mash-up of Bhangra, Bedouin and Balkan brass, swirling reeds and skirling turntable scratches. In short, it's world hip-hop with a strong Middle Eastern flavor, danceable in the extreme and endlessly inventive. I like to think that most of the albums to which I give the rare five-star accolade are not only entertaining; "Nu-Med" is entertaining to the max. A great, great party album, and that is nothing to sneeze at.