Natural Selection

Klezmer tunes, the spirit of the Balkans' Roma musicians and Celtic influences from Ireland and Scotland all find their launching pads in Dodo Street Band. This five-piece features fiddle virtuosity from former classical player Adam Summerhayes, the recorder of Piers Adams, accordion master Murray Grainger, bassist Malcolm Creese and bodhrán player Cormac Byrne. The world is not short of fine musicians drawing on disparate cultures to create new music out of older tunes, and on the likes of ‘Neil Gow's Lament’, the mix of Irish and music from the Balkans proves cinematically effective – you can all but see in your mind's eye an unrolling scroll of epic widescreen imagery. These quieter moments have a longer lasting effect than the knees-up dance tunes, and Grainger's accordion with Summerhayes' fiddle are especially beautiful.

If you want to find out more about the tunes, don't look to the album's sleeve notes, which comprise lamely surrealistic banter. Just stick with the best of the music, of which the laments are the highlights.