Another highly original musical stew from the path-breaking Belgian record label Home Records. This one is a little less of the usual European jazz/Penguin Cafe/acoustic folk/circus band/tango/classical mix and a bit more in the klezmer bag. But the sounds produced by these five musicians and their guests are more varied and to me more interesting that the avant-klezmer groups such as the Klezmatics which I have sampled. As the tune titles suggest, there’s also a strong Slavic influence here.
There are some vocals but the meat of the stew seems to be in the instrumentals. The only track I didn’t dig was Kerosene – a bit too funk/punk for me. With accordion, tuba, trumpet, trombone, sax, in addition to the expected clarinet and violin, this sounds like a wild party thrown by a Jewish gypsy family. Grab yourself a Chimay brew and join in!
TrackList: Kermesse Boogie, Kingston-Krakow, Kaleidoscope, Kilimandjaro, Kerosene, Les aventures de Johnny Klaxon, Kadineska, Der Klein Koala, Le Karaoke de Kiev, Rocky le Yack et Ken le Kangourou
– Jean Henri
