Kolotoc is Traband’s first album. Clarinetist Jarda Svoboda wrote all the songs but one. The group’s music takes its source from Balkan and klezmer traditions, while adding a modern folk twist to the melodies and making the best out of very unusual instrumentation. Imagine clarinet, trumpet, banjo, tuba, and drums partying through sailors’ songs and Jewish wedding music. While the roots of the music can recall groups like the Klezmatics or France’s Soldat Louis, the actual sound is closer to a klezmer version of Ceux-Qui-Marchent-Debout or Polémil Bazar, something between cabaret and street fanfare. Moreover, Svoboda’s vocal delivery, when added to the all-acoustic lineup, can evoke the Violent Femmes or Louise Attaque. The arrangements are inventive and often verge on circus music (a border deliberately crossed in “Cirkus Praha”). Highlights include the sailor ballad “Panenka Barni and Malborou Men,” the high-octane klezmer-punk “Kolotoc” (even though the lyrics are too cluttered), and the groovy mid-tempo “Historka Z Podsvesti,” which, with its anticlimactic chorus, provides a nice change of pace. It’s not the most original music among the much-populated field of the late-’90s back-to-trad movement in alternative European (and Québec) music, but Kolotoc comes through as a thoroughly honest and enjoyable record. Don’t miss it on account of the Czech lyrics; they are not essential to appreciate it. – François Couture
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