I’ll try and separate the components and describe them to you in detail, but it won’t do justice to the impact that results from the combination.  Nevertheless I’d still like to point out a few highpoints.  The instrumentation is primarily classical, but the way in which the tracks are overlaid, along with the scratching and looping that serve as ornamentation (usually), are purely modern.  Sometimes the modern sensibilities rise to the fore, and at other times it’s the more traditional.  There is a tension created by these two different aesthetics and they are for the most part complementary.  Occasionally, they compete, but I mean that literally. I’m thinking of track three “Woman in Hell” in particular.  There is interplay between the traditions in this song that comes across as a dialogue (or a duel).
 
Several of the songs are reminiscent of music from The Kronos Quartet (the Warsaw Village Band may not be quite that good with their strings, but they are very, very, skilled nonetheless.)  Some of the guest artists on this CD are traditional Polish folklore musicians.  Given the amount of time they’ve been playing I probably shouldn’t be surprised by their acumen.  It’s worth going to the website and looking at some of the photos in the gallery.  The images paint a better picture of the merging of young with old, and the contemporary with the traditional, then I can provide with words.  This may be where this band’s greatest strengths lie—in the ability to merge the passion and power of multiple generations and aesthetics into a single coherent package without compromising the integrity of either.

Part of what makes this fusion work arises from the nature of their singing.  It sounds simultaneously modern and traditional.  According to the band, some of the songs involve an old, special technique called “white voice,” which was used for long distance communication.  After reading this, I was amazed by how modern and familiar the singing sounded (I’m not talking pop-rock here, but cutting edge experimental stuff).  Slowly I began to realize that the sense of familiarity could be taken as evidence that human nature is universal, and that other cultures and times have already given voice to these universals in ways that we tend to blithely assume are unique to our era and locale (the use of some modern overlayering probably didn’t hurt either).

Another integrating factor is the sophisticated percussion.  For some reason, hitting things with sticks (rhythmically) is as compelling today as it has been for the last several millennia.  This is another aspect of music at which Uprooting excels.

Six musicians started the The Warsaw Village Band in 1997.  It’s now 8 years later and they’re still going strong.  On Uprooting we hear the talents of Maja Kleszcz, Magdalena Sobczak, Sylwia Swiatkowska, Wojciech Krzak, Piotr Glinski, Maciej Szajkowski, and Mario Dziurex Activator.  If you’ve been keeping careful track, you’ll notice that I listed seven instead of six people.  The last is their sound engineer/dub master and his also an important contribution to the project.

They describe their style of music as bio-techno, hip-hopsasa (a traditional Polish invitation to dance), and hardcora of obora.  They do a good job of explaining their purpose and influences on their web page.  It would take me a bit too far afield to cover that in this review but it’s another element that is worth your time to check out.

I’d prefer to give you some sense of what other groups the sound of “Warsaw Village Band” resembles, but it’s just not going to work.  They’re quite distinctive, but if you need some labels, think Kronos Quartet, traditional Polish Folk Music, heartbeat pacing, and powerful vocals mixed with some modern sensibilities.  Their website features sound samples, so if anything I’ve said has piqued your interest, you don’t have to buy blind.  I’m so impressed that I’m getting their last two albums myself.