From Edmonton, Alberta, The Kubasonics are the Brave Combo of the zabava, of the Can-Ukrainian Prairies. Giants Of the Prairies is billed as a commentary on Canadian life. Remember the MacKenzie Brothers? The album is a schizophrenic meander, a river of lovely ethnicity flowing between the often goofy banks of what life really is. It takes a while to get used to.

Goofy banks, indeed. Giants Of the Prairies is named for big, strange statues that towns erect. In Minnesota it may be a huge ear of corn or Paul Bunyan, but in Can-Ukrainia, it's an Easter Egg (Pysanka) or a pieroge, or even a kubasa. The Kubasonics have managed to write 15 verses on these items for the Uke melodied title track, and the song was used on a CBC show about big landmarks! A song that reminds me of some of the old Minnesota guys I've met (you could reference Norwegian Bachelor Farmers, sort of) is "Trouble on the Farm" the true story of Vuioko Metro or "Uncle Metro." Vuoiko goes to take a leak on his farm and one of his dogs thinks he's taking out a kubasa, the sausage after which the band is named. Another, in zydeco beat, tells how "Kyshla," or blood sausage is made. "And Dad made a funnel from an old plastic spool / And stretching out those pigs guts, that would make him drool."

At the other end of the sausage is that river of loveliness. Brian Cherwick, a University of Alberta ethnomusicologist, plays slow, haunting flute solos on telenka or sopilka, and or a faster one on a drymba, or jews harp. A pretty piece of fusion for gurdyphiles is the up tempo traditional song "Kysil," accompanied by baglama, tabla, and the Ukrainian hurdy gurdy called the lira -- I guess that makes Cherwick a "lyricist"! Old time music lovers will like the Can-Ukrainian dance tune "Early Bird Of Spring," taken from the repertoire of Bill Boychuck and The Easy Aces, and played on fiddle, bass, drums and tsymbaly.

The Black Cat Orchestra is a wind and brass-heavy band from Seattle They specialize in silent film scores, were featured on "This American Life," and collaborated on a track of David Byrne's Feelings. This second album, Mysteries Explained is mostly material from their scores for Germaine Dulac's 1926 Surrealist film "The Seashell and the Clergyman," and Hans Richter's 1927 dada film "Ghosts Before Breakfast." Gulp!

It's not immediately apparent that the album is mostly esoteric film music. The liner notes don't say anything about it and so as an uninformed listener you may find yourself asking "Why?" at a few of the things that go on here. Most of the tracks are based on Latin and Eastern European dance and cabaret music and carry an aura not totally unlike that of Madison, Wisconsin's notorious Reptile Palace Orchestra -- especially when BCO's trumpet and sax-rich version of the Balkan dance chestnut "Bucimis" pipes up. A straightforward and brassy off-rhythm "Radomirska Kopanica," and a snaky "Gecti Dost Kervani" are two more fun Balkan traditionals. As for Latin, the album begins with a Latin tune, "El Gallinazo," written by accordionist Kyle Hanson, heavy on the trumpet and drums as well!

It's the vocal tracks, sung mostly by Jessica Kenney, that provide the mysteries that need explaining. Kenney has a thin, high voice much like broken piano wire whipping through the air. At times, it sounds relatively normal and on-track, mostly on the traditional Balkan song "Yuru Dilber." At others, it whips around with less restraint, as on the Brecht/Weill cabaret song "Denn wie mann sich bettet, so liegt man (As you make your bed, you must lie there)" and a song written by cellist Lori Goldston called "Later, she distorts." This is when you pull out the explanation, "Must be a surrealist film score!" In addition, a few of the tunes seem like filler -- movie filler perhaps.

The musicianship on this album, especially the way the instruments complement each other, is really wonderful. The drummers are outstanding, perhaps in part because they stand out in crisp opposition to the brass! Mysteries Explained may carry some dark Bauhaus undercurrents, but much of the time it will also set a listener to dancing!

In some ways these albums are as different as day and night. In real time, I can see The Kubasonics attracting down-home jest-loving Can-Ukrainins at the Kubasa Fest. I can see Olympia yuppies dancing to BCO with their glasses of Cooper Mountain Organic Pinot Noir. But I bet both CDs would satisfy ethno heads who have an abiding love of humorous AND expert music!

[Judith Gennett]