WARSAW VILLAGE BAND

People's Spring (World Village)

Straight out of Poland comes the extremely intense sounds of the Warsaw Village Band, a sextet of Slavic neo-traditionalists who pay musical homage to all the cultures that have swept across Eastern Europe over the years: Scary Teutonic chants from ancient Germany, Scandinavian vocal weirdness from up north and achingly beautiful melodies from Belarus, Ukraine, the old Ottoman Empire and perhaps points east.

Their sound is a dissonant, almost violent clash of fiddles and violins, set to near-medieval sounding percussion (including the dhol, a large barrel drum) and interlaced with vocals that sound extremely exotic to western ears. It's also almost punkish, given the gleeful way these Poles attack their traditional instruments. Put these guys at Folklorama and the bus tours will scoot back to North Dakota faster you can say "busted hearing aid."

Find this album and you will practically feel the chilling wind blowing down from the Baltic Sea. Available at the record store run by the Winnipeg Folk Festival, where Warsaw Village performs next week. HHHHH

-- B.K.