All of the reasons why I am grossly unqualified to properly assess the quality of Huun-Huur-Tu's Mother Earth! Father Sky! are the very reasons why it's important that I'm the one recommending it. Chiefly: you don't need a working knowledge — or any knowledge — of the Tuvan musical tradition (Tuva is the former Soviet land from which HHT hail) to get a lot out of this record. It's weird — very weird. The melodies are often eroded, disparate shards and outcroppings, like a prehistoric cavern. There are times — like the incredible opening "Mezhegey" — that listening to the album feels like falling down a well. It can be that disorienting. But at the same time, you get something comparatively conventional like "Daglarym," the work of Sainkho Namtcylak, who, based on her incredible contributions here, I am willing to peg as the Tuvan Carole King. The two women's ballads are not all that far apart. Really! At times it drifts a bit more towards New Age than I am normally comfortable with, but within this context, it's immaterial. Mother Earth! Father Sky! is an album of immersion and staggering beauty.