The Rough Guide to the Music of Eastern Europe

In their heyday, the Rough Guide CDs were superb overviews of the music of a particular country or region. Now, in more straightened times, they're often drawn from World Music Network's sister label Riverboat Records. That said, there are some fine artists in the catalogue, notably Hungary's Söndörgő, Croatia's Kries, Serbia's Boris Kovač and Bulgaria's Eugenia Georgieva. Alongside them are two of Britain's best British bands playing Balkan music, She'koyokh and Don Kipper. It seems that in today's globalised world, the artists don't need to come from Eastern Europe at all.

These are largely bands that respect the traditions from which they come while also reinventing them. There's some wild Gypsy fiddling, nifty tambours and powerful, full-throated vocals. But you can't help feeling that it's a slightly random selection dictated more than anything by what's in the Riverboat Records catalogue, however classy that is.