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Review
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Tracks, Review >>
The Wall of Sound, in the form Phil Spector might appreciate, is alive and well in Poland. Warsaw Village Band is a group of young musicians who play what they call hard-core folk music. Fiddles, hurdy-gurdies, trumpets, drums, zithers, jew's-harps and jaunty female vocals roar out of the speakers in an avalanche of rhythm. The band traveled around Poland to learn rural styles from older musicians, but its attack is nearly post-punk, contemporary and strangely familiar. "Chassidic Dance" sounds like Klezmer, Southern Appalachian and Scandanavian fiddles clashing with a college marching band. "The Rain Is Falling" is a melancholy suite that starts with a sob of distressed fiddles and wailing female harmonies; an extended hammered-dulcimer solo builds, slowly, to an impressive climax. In a nod to the future of folk, the album closes with a pair of remixes that add club-friendly dance beats to the music without overwhelming the band's funky, traditional sound. That's hard-core. 07/01/04
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