Tantz Mit...

From the beginning, Madison Balkan-funk outfit The Shtetlblasters' album Tantz Mit...—whose title is Yiddish for "dance with..."—invites listeners to mince about like it's 1895 in the old country, swing their dreds about like it's time to go to the Umphrey's McGee show, and scratch their heads. At the end of a short "Intro" track, a synth-coated voice warbles out, "Tantz mit The Shtetlbasters," but such tacky psychedelic moments happen only because the band has a sense of humor. "Thunder Koopa" picks it up, whirling Sam Harmet's mandolin and Rucha Trivedi's clarinet into an exuberant Klezmer slap-fight with the rhythm section. Such technically nimble, multi-ethnic workouts—and slower moments like the elegant, mournful "Los Biblicos"—characterize the album (which The Shtetlblasters will celebrate with a Sunday show at the Project Lodge). Detours, like the godawful robo-vocal chants of "Hole At The Center (Of Your Everything Bagel)," quite fortunately do not.

Still, the electronics (three members play synth at one time or another) contribute something, even if the randy melodies of klezmer and Eastern European music are the band's main strength. "Khusidelekh" opens with a glittery spiral of synth melodies and eventually then melts into a dissonant collision of jam-funk and traditional musicianship. Big, squishy keys take the lead on "Tantz Tantz Allemin," or at least join up with the clarinet over Aaron Sherraden's cranked-up slap-and-pop bass line.

Hippie-funk fans and world-music fans can get together over Tantz Mit..., and so can people who'd usually be wary of both genres. A band with such an eccentric blend of influences could just shtick it up and wait for the crowd's pot brownies to sink in, but The Shtetlblasters resist temptation—well, usually—with taut play that might actually get people to stop swaying and start jigging.