"Rise Up! Shteyt Oyf!" is riding the crest of some that is old, much that is new and all that is wonderful about the Klezmatics. In addition to several traditional klezmer numbers like the rollicking "Bulgars #2" ("Tantsn un Shpringen"), which immediately transports you to a wedding or other Jewish celebration, there are some very nontraditional tracks on this disc.

Chief among them is "I Ain't Afraid," something of an African-American spiritual from a pacifist point of view. It shows up early in the lineup of 15 songs and is done in Yiddish and English in a gospel style. Repeated as the final selection on the disc, in English only, it makes some relevant points in these troubled times with the repeated refrain: "I ain't afraid of your Yahweh; I ain't afraid of your Allah; I ain't afraid of your Jesus; I'm afraid of what you're doing in the name of your God."

A number of the selections, such as the opener, "Beloved klezmorim, my dear ones," or the strangely named "St. John's Nign" (niggun, or wordless melody), have a distinctive Mideastern flavor, accompanied by the cimbalon and the tabor. It's not hard to envision a belly dancer as you listen to this sinuous, rapidly accelerating music.

Some of the songs are just plain Yiddish folk songs like "Kats un Moyz" ("Cat and Mouse") which, one must assume, tell a story. But what story? The review copy of the disc came without liner notes for translation. Hopefully, commercial copies will redress that.

Nevertheless, even to a non-Yiddish speaker, some of the tunes are so infectious that the sense of fun comes across in spite of the incomprehensible words. "Makht Oyf" ("Open Up") is one such song, very much like a child's nursery rhyme, replete with police whistles and old-fashioned car horns.

Lead vocalist Lorin Sklamberg is his usual wonderful self, enhanced by the other five members of the ensemble and a children's chorus that chimes in on several of the tracks. The instrumentation is highly innovative and wonderfully professional. Even if one were not interested in the Jewish content of this disc, it is well worth listening to for the musical values. The niggunim -- of which there are several -- become exercises in the art of acceleration and there are moments when it is hard to sit still. It's not hard to imagine a roomful of Chassidim, dancing themselves into an ecstatic frenzy.

"Barikadn" ("Barricades") takes a simple tune and plays with tempo and an echo effect to produce a very avant-garde and somewhat surreal sound. The next number, "Davenen" ("Prayer"), takes what sounds like the same melody and transforms it into something so Celtic that you can almost see the Titanic sailing away with its doomed lovers on board.

But my personal favorite is a lengthy instrumental called "Di Gayster" ("Ghosts") that doesn't even need the title to transmit what it is trying to say. It's a lovely, spooky thing that, led by the piano, moves the imagination through silent groves of silky water, surrounded by dark, hanging willows. The melody is minimalist and mesmerizing, rather like one of the "Gymnopedies" of Erik Satie, punctuated by occasional sighs. Of ghosts or is it just the wind in the trees? Little matter. Whatever spirits are here, they are not malevolent.

Likewise, whatever music is here, it is worth listening to.