Kabatronics

The irresistible draw here is Albania’s amazing brass band Fanfara Tirana, an 11-strong musical force of real magic. Transglobal Underground, meanwhile, are veterans of the global fusion scene, mixed up with dubby electronics and club beats, though it’s been a while since they’ve really surprised us with any new moves. There was the offshoot pan-European project, UNITE, in 2010, but their role here is more about providing generic beats behind the musical wonders of their Albanian partners. It’s not an equal musical marriage.

Fanfara Tirana could stun a badger at 50 paces. There’s the fine texture of their interweaving brass lines, the otherworldly sound of pealing clarinets over flugelhorns, saxes and trumpets, and the strangeness of their rough, gruff harmony vocals. It works well thanks to Transglobal being unobtrusive, as on the snaking ‘Three Beauties, resisting the urge to throw drum’n’bass samples over the sound. On the more laid-back, dubby rapping on ‘Shtojzovalle, or the strange Balkan-reggae rhythms of ‘Aferdita’, with its flurries of drums against shimmering clarinet lines, Kabatronics is a winner. But it’s Tirana who provide the real fuel.