Since the revival of klezmer music beginning in the 1970s, some players have tried to fuse the wild East sound with other sorts of music. On the title cut of Victory Party, Geoff Berner achieves a powerful convergence of rock with the long-ago music of Eastern Europeâeuro;™s Jews. A raging denunciation of war and a vivid depiction of its casualties, the song would not sound out of place in the repertoire of System of a Down (if given a metallic edge). Since producer Josh Dolgin (aka Socalled) has released his own klezmer-hip-hop outings, the collaboration was well conceived. Victory Party is an entirely contemporary klezmer recording that doesnâeuro;™t sacrifice the key elements of the tradition it draws from.
