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WARSAW VILLAGE BAND

Representing: Poland.

Claim to folkie fame: Warsaw Village Band is a young Polish sextet that should blow minds this weekend with its harsh but haunting take on traditional Slavic music.

The sound is a clash of gang vocals, fiddles and percussion not too far from the equally obscure world of Scandinavian folk music, but with an almost punkish fury. You can almost feel the frigid wind blowing across Eastern Europe as you listen to the band's latest album, People's Spring.

"This is even exotic for Poles," explains 23-year-old violinist-screamer Wojciech Krzak, speaking over the phone from Warsaw with a thick Slavic accent. "Because of Communism, this tradition was forgotten, especially the way we play all roots, unpleasant and sometimes brutal."

Krzak is the only member of Warsaw Village Band who grew up outside the Polish capital, in a small village where there were still musicians who remembered the way traditional music sounded before Stalinism attempted to stamp out ethnic differences across Eastern Europe.

Today, he and his bandmates act like musical archaeologists as they search for forgotten songs.

"We go through old manuscripts, or go to villages and speak to old people who remember it. In my case, I was lucky, because there were traditional players around," says Krzak. "This contact with the old generation is very important to us -- it gives us a lot of pleasure, but also a lot of materials to play."

For now, the visceral, almost violent style of Polish music preferred by Warsaw Village Band doesn't have much of a following at home. Even Krzak says he doesn't listen to traditional music, preferring reggae, African pop and other forms of world music instead.

"We have a movement but we cannot say it is very big, because it's completely underground. You can't hear this or see it on television.

"We are trying to make a bridge between the past and the future. Like other (world music acts), we are trying to create new vibes."

Warsaw Village on the Mainstage: Saturday, July 10, at 6 p.m.