Balkan-style brass bands are almost respectable these days, what with the likes of Serbia's Boban and Marko Marković and Romania's Fanfare Ciocărlia leading a convoy of world music brass bandwagons out of the deep valleys of southeast Europe to the wider world beyond. Raya Brass Band don't hail from the Balkans but from New York City, from Brooklyn to be precise. Their precise country of origin doesn't seem to be important — Raya Brass Band are authentic enough to be invited to play at no end of festivals and celebrations at venues that range from tiny community centers to large outdoor stages.

This Train is Now is the band's third album, recorded in a studio in the Catskills of New York State, a leafy location that might double for green Bosnian hills if you squint hard enough. Although the music might sound pretty much traditional little of the material recorded here has its roots across the ocean in southeast Europe. Most of it is self-penned and much comes from improvisations by the band — spontaneous jams that on a good day yield tunes and riffs to be salted away for future use. The title track, "This Train is Now," composed by trumpeter Ben Syversen, came into being this way, as did "Riff Cloud," which took shape after an improvisation recorded on a mobile phone. After all this faux-Balkan creativity, it almost comes as a surprise to realize that two traditional tunes have been squeezed in between the self-penned compositions — "Shapkarevo Kasapsko Oro," a Macedonian tune, and "Romska Karsilama," which was learned and adapted to a brass treatment from a black market Romany recording bought at a street market.

Raya Brass Band does not boast a single Roma (or even Slav) player in its ranks but this does not seem to matter. Why should it when most 'authentic' Roma musicians are musical kleptomaniacs who happily incorporate Hindi film playback, Klezmer wedding tunes and even James Bond theme tunes in their eclectic repertoire? Surely the only thing that is important is that the music feels right? This does.