Merčedes Kolo

The Finnish harmonica band Sväng have made a series of photographs on different modes of transport – motorbike sidecar, railway maintenance vehicle, hot air balloon – and Dobranotch create a similar feel on the cover of Merčedes Kolo, though the badge has been replaced by a horseshoe, perhaps for luck.

Dobranotch (Goodnight) are a Russian band playing klezmer and good-time party music with lyrics mainly in Russian and Yiddish. Their sound is brassy and boisterous, often excessively so. Although they're from St Petersburg, there's a touch of underworld Odessa in there. There are novelties here in ‘Ya Rayah’ the Algerian song (by Dahmane El Harrachi) popularised by Rachid Taha and ‘Son’, a Latin-flavoured Russian song by Alec Kopyt of the Amsterdam Klezmer Band. Fun though this is, Dobranotch's 2018 album, 20 Years, had more variety.