Here’s a CD whose powers of addiction have already welded it to my Walkman. It’s a fusion of klezmer and hip-hop in a celebration of the khasene (a traditional Eastern European Jewish wedding) and, most impressively, one which is both respectful and playful. The wedding theme is apt. Solomon, who hails from Radio 3 World Music Awards nominees Oi-Va-Voi, marries her wild fiddle to the hip-hop stylings and samples of Canadian Socalled (Josh Dolgin). Together they use traditional melodies and Yiddish and Hebrew lyrics to evoke ancient ceremonies with a modern twist. Hiphopkhasene draws on many artists already known to the klezmer cognoscenti including Frank London and the fabulous clarinet player David Krakauer.

Little snatches of quaint explanatory dialogue, samples of glasses broken underfoot and funky back-beats all contribute to making this most ancient of ceremonies into irresistibly fun-filled nuptials. On ‘Kale Bazetsn’ Michael Alpert plays the badkhn – the freestyling jester who declares his very 21st-century attitude to the bride (‘Your dress makes you look iconic, but yo, what’s with the white? Are you trying to be ironic?’). Yet Solomon’s fiddle is utterly authentic, the arrangements never stray too far from the festivities and the album maintains an affectionately reverent mood, even when Nik Ammar’s guitar gets a little heavy on ‘Gasn Nign’. No one forgets this is party music, and it remains a riotously joyful affair for us all. Mazeltov!