Kocani Orkestar

This! gorgeous instrumental album is a perfect introduction to the wild, rhythmically challenging world of Balkan folk. Start with the title track; based on an infamous hit song from Tito-era Yugoslavia, "L'Orient Est Rouge" just swings. So does the rest of the album, albeit in a more cacophonous way. "Sunet Oro" and "Ciganka" stand out in a uniformly brilliant set.

There is no Gypsy music, only musics Gypsies play. The genre that captivated Beirut's Zach Condon is Gypsy brass, and this skillfully produced recording makes an ideal starter CD. Featuring trumpeter and hereditary leader Naat Veliov, expelled in an unsavory contract wrangle shortly after taking his tuba-bumping Macedonian band international, it beautifies the hot blare of Romania's Fanfare Ciocarlia and the raggedy-ass craziness of Serbia's Boban Markovic with Veliov's firm yet woozy lyricism. A stone classic caps the high-test performance: the Roma "national anthem," "Djelem, Djelem." (Grade - ****)