Perceived from abroad, German folk music has long suffered under a set of stereotypes, merrily punctured by numerous post-wall avant-garde ensembles dedicated to turning the caricatures inside out. Recent releases by two of Berlin's brightest ex post-retro combos illustrate.

17 Hippies (neither 17 nor "hippies"  - as one remarks, "the Rolling Stones aren't exactly

stones") have knocked around a good bit in their 13-year run, albeit without securing a proper U.S. hearing - until now, perhaps. The Hippies made an elusive, one-time Houston appearance with Brave Combo in 1997. They return in March 2008 after a decade to Austin's talent-scouting SXSW, on a mini-tour that also will hit New York, Morgantown, West Virginia, and Lafayette, Louisiana. Envy the fortunate, far-flung few.

The band made its silver-screen debut in Andreas Dresen's wistful, award-winning Halbe Treppe. Set in the derelict working-class milieu of Frankfurt-am-Oder, a gritty commercial crossroads on the Polish border, Halbe Treppe (the snack bar run by one of the protagonists, around which much of the action unfolds) was an underground hit in Europe. The Hippies (who composed and performed the soundtrack) thread a madcap Greek-chorus presence throughout the film, whose allusive magical-realist lens poignantly frames the mundane character of (dysfunctional) family life in post-reunification (former East) Germany.(More recently, they again collaborated with Dresen's Berlin production of the play Kasimir und Karoline.)

The Hippies' elusive sonic palette is eclectic anarchy: vocals (German, English, and French, all with a world-weary edge), accordion, harmonium, harmonica, recorder, flute, clarinet, bass clarinet, tenor sax, oboe, trumpet, flugelhorn, trombone, euphonium, tuba, Jew's harp, kalimba, guitar, banjo, ukulele, mandolin, bouzouki, dulcimer, violin, cello, contrabass, santur, tempura, zoura, toy piano, musical saw, shruti, and percussion. Imagine the possibilities. All compositions but one are original-what else but Jerry Lordan's emblematic "Apache," with the quirky choice of an oboe lead (Burt Lancaster, RIP).

To complicate matters, several members play instruments different from those on which they formally trained, an act of collective musical transliteration that gives the band (and this impeccably produced recording) its delightfully textured, subtly swinging character, with an Eastern European feel that is simultaneously Berlin underground, and thoroughly, globally contemporary. Dive in with Heimlich (roughly translated as "secret"), then go look for the Halbe Treppe soundtrack (and DVD), their Hardcore Troubadours (with Bordeaux's Hurlements d'Léo), and 17 Hippies Play Guitar, with Tom Waits, Marc Ribot, and Element of Crime guitarist Jakob Ilja. Just don't look back.