Balkan Beat Box

BBB's second release draws on the group's raucous live performances, and it seems to have picked up a bit more swagger along the way. Whether they're sampling a Moroccan friend's childhood song, building a track around dueting Bulgarian singers or persuading an Egyptian vocalist to rap, the results are strikingly organic and truly polyethnic. At its best -- and there's a lot of best -- New York City's rock and rap scenes throb underneath these tracks, informing how the dumbek or clarinet or Bulgarian singers play off each other. At its worst, it sounds like hypnotic electronica with ethnic influences.