Craaazy mixture of traditional Italian folk songs, arias, weird Tom Waits-y rock, funk, dance, and other stuff. Mostly this is each song in its own genre; throughout the songs there is a recurring startling metallic electric guitar. Most everything is slightly uneasy and off-kilter. The theme is war and love songs; the lyric sources range from Aesop (in Greek) to Neruda (in Spanish), as well as originals. There are snippets of Bush giving speeches, and parts of war movies. A creepy carnival sound is also a recurring theme. Yet some of the songs could be generic “world,” containing no obvious weirdness at all. The liner notes in the little attached booklet have translations and explanations for the songs. The “World” songs: 1, 14, possibly 5, 7, 9. The TOTALLY wacky ones: 2, 6, 11, 10. Others are somewhere in between. Each is so different, I can’t really pick an exemplary tune among them. Play them all, depending on your mood.

1. (2:48) stately 19th c. Italian song, lady singing in strident voice, and bagpipe.
2. (1:33) scary crazy carnival music, with people telling, in Greek, the story of the wolf and the lamb. Spoken. Tom Waits-y
3. (6:31) funky and metallic: honky tonk piano, flute, with rap in Italian. Has the rifle bit from Full Metal Jacket. Translation in booklet: a scathing attack on American attitudes post-Sept. 11
*4. *(10:52) long jubilant tribal-sounding fusion of rural Italian and Serbian tunes. many stages. Electric guitar adds interesting layer.
5. (1:46) Vinyl hiss, old-time accordion waltz, like music from an old film. (Instrumental)
*6. *(1:59) Light circusy, like a patter song by a carnival barker—weird electronic voice sometimes.
*7. *(5:49) Pretty minor-key love song, strummy mandolin, rolling percussion, vocal harmonies. Changes tempos. All acoustic.
*8. *(1:51) Eerie hushed carnival waltz, with musical saw, flute, oboe, others—and unexpected loud metallic elec. Guitar strum (that’s the bombing). Instrumental.
9. (0:45) two meditative bagpipes, instrumental
*10. *(1:03) Slow dramatic operatic strut, with wild trombones, male voice and chorus backup; some wild electric guitar
11. (3:46) dance beat, with tense eerie funky gothic music, echoing voice, part of a Bush speech and samples from Apocalypse Now
*12. (2:13) Tense Medieval/Mexican tune, oboe/bassoon/guitars/cello, two guys singing a Neruda poem dissing gringos—en español.
13. (7:53) slow haunting eerie no-man’s land, vibes, samples from Bush, jazz trumpet, with brief interludes for a fast rolling chorus (vocals in Portuguese)
*14. (5:17) Traditional Portuguese song, sparkly bells, lush with piano and violin. No weirdness at all! (but maybe irony—there is soprano sax.)
15. (3:07) midtempo dance beat bounce, with jew’s harp boinging, and accordion; instrumental.

—reviewed by mandy (la chanteuse)