Kultur Shock/We Came to Take Your Jobs Away: Koolarrow Records

Literally a helter skelter mélange/circus tent of style and flourish, which some people might call a basket case of half-baked outres musique, these Eastern European Slavic soulsters meets Japan avant-garde theatre rock dip into the territory, as described by their label, of Frank Zappa and System of a Down, but I would shed light on the fact that there’s Mr. Bungle in there too, and perhaps Kurt Weill, even Cabaret! It’s rambunctious, zealous, and dizzying, but in reality, I don’t think this will continuously show up on my play list, not because the Bulgarian gypsy strings and du-blat panic attack drums and super-stuffed vocals aren’t impressive, but because this is like being part of a performance that feels pregnant a few times, then similar to a raw-stitched Tom Waits record, feels a little too pressurized for constant listening. Yes, there’s a metallic beauty to “Zumbul,” a breathless and nearly capsizing drama that could outpace any Nu Metal wanna-be crue and simultaneously appeal to lovers of deconstructed opera, or Eastern European folk mysticism, whereas slightly more straight-up punk pounces on “Gino Loves You,” like a downshift in style, yet it has Pogues-like skittering instrumentation. For anyone familiar with bands nearby their original turf (well, not Seattle, from which they now hail, but homeland Bosnia and Bulgaria for some of the players) like Sunshine, or Croatian rocks bands, know that such bands deliver potent fare; still, most of them don’t venture so left field as this, where the dynamo and authentic immigrant inchoate sense of ruptured cultures feels both threatening and resoundingly resilient. If you liked Hedwig the Angry Inch not just because of the Bowie-isms but also the cabbage-strewn, post-Cold War wit and wryness, plus the staginess, then this is your over-turned cup of tea leaves, for the bold and bad-assed purveyors of the Ottoman empire’s old haunts. Hell, even Jello Biafra and Joan Baez dig them, and they ain’t no tools from the same shed.

Worth three potato chips.