Raucous pan-European klezmer. This won’t be the most refined, varied, or nuanced performance you’ll ever hear, but if you have any moveable body parts you ought to be won over by this band’s ability to have to have a smashingly danceable good time. There’s a clarinet, a tuba, a saxophone, an electric guitar, a bouzouki (a sort of Mediterranean lute), male and female vocals, a flute, an accordion, and fairly modern-pop style percussion. Often these are all playing at once. Many tracks betray a significant jazz influence. In summation: rawk!

1: Shrill intro with whistle. Pop style drums keep things rawkin’. Makes you tap your feet. Electric guitar comes in about halfway through. Ends with two screams.
2: Jazzy tuba starts off, then wind instruments come in with a middle eastern melody. Things get sort of Carnival Cruise-ish every once in a while.
3: Madcap melody with lots of whistling and shouting. Cool drumless interlude with squeaky noises that might be balloons being rubbed. Also a mission impossible sounding interlude.
4: Quieter but not much less energetic. Jazzy rubber clarinet solo. Woodwinds hammer towards the end. Cute tuba and clarinet dialog finishes it off.
5: Nearly silent clattery intro. Lovely clarinet. Middle eastern winds with electric guitar and drums again. Ska feeling at times.
6: Lots of silence at the beginning. Slow low clarinet comes in with an Evan Ziporyn flavor.
7: Quiet but energetic intro with lots of woodwinds segues into the frenetic free-for-all danceable craziness that is this album’s common mode. Things get basic again in the middle, and build up again instrument by instrument.
8: Circus-like, with shouts, children giggling, and what sounds like a clown’s nose being honked.
9: Intro with Red Hot Chili Peppers-esque guitar and tuba. A recurring theme that sounds sort of like Turkey in the Straw transposed into a minor key. Some amazing string playing near the middle, just as things seem to be dissolving into chaos. Ominous squeaking interlude near the end, where the accordion especially is very angry.
10: Shouting, laughing, saxophone heavy celebration. False ending around 3:50. Sparse drums and humorous tuba follow, with a brief return to original sound.
11: Meditative and slow, with clarinet, accordion, tuba, percussion, guitar, saxophone and thin female vocals (but only a few at a time). Ends with odd glassy humming.
12: Martial drums and flute. Clarinet and saxophone soften things up. Whistles and yips get the party going. Jazzy drum solo.
13: Heartfelt spat-out spoken vocals. Nothing else.
14: High squeaking clarinet. Bovine tuba. Farmyard sounds. Saxophone and guitar rock out. Screams, shouts, and a general good time.
-Kathryn