Various Artists

Covering everything from Uzbek folk-funk to Bulgarian jazz-hop, Gypsy Groove is still remarkably cohesive.

Related Content

• Richard III
  April 26, 2012
• Cover Story: Concussions in Youth Sports: Is The Risk Worth It?
  August 17, 2011
• Wine of the Week: Orange Wine (Yes, Orange)
  August 1, 2011
• The Coast of Utopia: Shipwreck
  February 9, 2012
• What the Hell Is a Churkey?
  March 22, 2011

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Music Newsletter: Keep your thumb on the local music scene with music features, additional online music listings and show picks. We'll also send special ticket offers and music promotions available only to our Music Newsletter subscribers.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

According to at least one mainstream music rag, gypsy rock is the next big thing. Yet the 11 artists on Putumayo's latest collection of intoxicating international rhythms eschew clichéd guitar riffage for squeezeboxes and syncopated swing beats. As the title suggests, Gypsy Groove is full of interesting musical juxtapositions — Dutch klezmer-dub? Check. Uzbek folk-funk? Yup. Bulgarian jazz-hop? Uh-huh. You'd be hard-pressed to find any album that covers as much fertile musical ground, manages to be both traditional and modern and presents as many opportunities for drunken polka dancing. Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of this compilation is that while each of the artists, from Slovenia's Magnifico & Turbolentza, the Czech Republic's Gipsy.cz and Hungary's Kistehén Tánczenekar, have their own interpretation of the contemporary gypsy sound, the album has a remarkable cohesiveness. It's all a little bit weird, and a whole lot wonderful.