The band name is sardonic since Warsaw isn’t exactly a little village. In the recent days the group’s press has stressed how many modern western influences there are on this cd, but most of them don’t really show. With lyrics in Polish, layers of otherworldly vocal harmonies and a haunting, alternately lush and rustic wash of violins and cello tastefully augmented by dulcimer, accordion and percussion, Warsaw Village Band’s new cd on upstart Brooklyn label Barbes Records has the same darkly minor-key, atmospheric feel as much of their previous work. Better put, they sound like what John Cale was trying to do on Venus in Furs and might have been able to pull off if he had any idea what Balkan music was all about. This album is scary-good in the purest sense of the phrase.

The intensity kicks in right off the bat with the cd’s first track, Wise Kid Song, set to a fast 6/8 beat, the group’s three women harmonizing over a catchy descending progression driven by staccato strings. At the end (western influence!) they run the strings through a phaser, 60s psychedelic style. Track two, 1,5H rides a hypnotic, suspenseful pulse with layers of sepulchral, contrapuntal vocals, big cymbal crash at the end to wind it up. Then they bring it down with Over the Forest, with a little bit of a hip-hop rhythm but with the sparsest drumming imaginable. Of all the tracks here, the next cut, the catchy Skip Funk is the only one that makes much of a nod to current commerciality with turntable scratching and an Afrobeat feel.

The rest of the cd is mostly a black angel’s death song. Is Anybody In There is simply a hypnotic chant over a martial drumbeat; Heartbeat sounds like a Polish amalgam of Black Sea Hotel and Carol Lipnik, darkly dramatic vocals over a hypnotic, bluesy melody. Polska Fran Polska has the violin echoing the Anitra’s Dance theme by Grieg over a stately, anthemic one-chord drone that jumps to life like a golem when the dulcimer comes in, then falls away at the end, down to just pizzicato violins. After that, two more ominous, incantatory one-chord jams, another march, a Weimar blues and a partita beginning with a swirling gypsy dance that slows down and gets all ambient before picking up at the end with the drums. Not something you want to put on late at night and fall asleep to unless you are a brave soul (and recommended for brave souls everywhere, regardless of whether you speak Polish - we can’t vouch for the lyrics one way or another). Since they’re on Barbes Records, a New York date - at least at their home base - shouldn’t be out of the question, watch this space for updates.