Europeana

Jaune Toujours are the rambunctious and eclectic Belgian sextet led by singer and accordionist Piet Maris. This is their first album since 2013's Routes, and its name stakes its claim as an alternative to Americana – roots music from a metropolitan, multicultural Europe with strong musical links to Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe, and encompassing jazz, rock, punk, ska, Latin, dub and reggae.

Europeana was recorded live at Club Magazin 4 in Brussels, and at the band's own rehearsal room at Studio Choux de Bruxelles. As a result, it is raucous and brassy, pumped with energy and variety, a play-it-loud party album – albeit probably more squat party than dinner party – that distils all manner of influences into its grooves.

Amid the exuberant brass and percussion that dominates the sound, there's a strong socio-political dimension; Maris and the band draw on the same internationalist libertarianism as Manu Chao, with the songs including the unambiguous ‘Refugees Welcome’, as well as ‘Radio Blues’, a lament for the malaise of bad news and worse media, and ‘Cinema Politika’, blowing a brass riff through an exhausted political system. Messages abound, but so does the festive, funky live squat party feel that typifies Europeana.