Having been twisted into propaganda by the former Communist regime, Polish folk music is nearly dead in its homeland. However, certain traditional folk troupes still exist who maintain an interst in carrying on the music. Enter the Warsaw Village Band, a collection of young up starts who've mastered the traditional forms, adding slight modernizing touches to btoaden the music's appeal. Peoples Spring, the group's sophomore release, takes an enchanting foray into the sounds of another place and time.

Embraced by an odd mix of punk tockers and ethnomusicologists, these other worldly songs feature frantic drive, ethereal swirl and the instrumental prowess to win over even purists. Obscure traditional instruments such as the suka and 16th-century Polish fiddle, hurdy-gurdy and Polish dulcimer give the album its distinctive sound. And the dtiving, nearly disorienting mix of trumpet and multi-layered female vocals elevate the polyrhythms and various passage of "To You Kasiunia" to escapism of the highest order. Whether an exercise in musical revisionism or an inttoduction to an exotic ethic, Peoples Spring ptoves nothing short of a revelation to Western ears. In such able hands, the future of Polish folk music appears to be safe for a long time to come.