The Warsaw Village Band certainly ain’t anyone’s idea of a traditional Polish roots music ensemble. First, they resemble fugitives from a Jim Jarmusch flick or an East Village thrift shop fashion show. And then there’s that prominent quote from reggae group Burning Spear in the CD booklet found in the Polska sextet’s second, and latest, release that declares: “Remember your past but keep it livin’ in the future.” On “Uprooting,” the group does just that.

Throughout this release the band simultaneously celbrates and reveres traditional acoustic Polish folk and then tears it apart, punks it up and turns it topsy-turvy for a total assault on the genre. Songs are played with rock energy, experimental freedom and executed with a breakneck virtuosity. It’s a blast of traditional acoustic instruments, including hurdy-gurdy and hand percussion laced with turntable scratching. Song styles include work chants, tunes about tragic lovers, traditional dances, folk tales, antiwar laments and ceremonial songs vocalized by the group’s female singers utilizing what they call “white voices.”

Swinging close to Celtic reels of bluegrass breakdowns, the music on “Uprooting” totally uproots one’s concept of traditional Polish folk.

The disc rocks.

-Eric Feber