Borealis ****

Traditional Quebecois music is, literally, foot-tapping, its rhythms beaten out by stamping feet. Le Vent Du Nord play reeling folk songs in the manner of their elders La Bottine Souriante, but tinged with an Acadian slyness. A hurdy-gurdy buzzes throughout, while the accordion skips and slides. Feet clomp like the old nag of "Le Vieux Cheval", or patter through the lighter songs of penniless lovers and drunken husbands. This is in origin dance music, but Le Vent Du Nord privilege verbal dexterity over instrumental pyrotechnics.

-- by David Honigmann