Gogol Bordello

Super Taranta! (SideOneDummy)

Ukraine immigrant Eugene Hütz and his nomadic tribe are reinventing world music. Following up the now-NYC troupe’s 2005 breakthrough blast, Gypsy Punks: Underdog World Strike, fifth album Super Taranta! begs for an audience. The punk ‘tude of the Steve Albini-produced Gypsy Punks has been replaced with an hourlong mind spasm of carnivalesque hysterics, helmed by Victor van Vugt (Nick Cave, Austin’s Voxtrot). Exhilarating on the more traditional, accordion-heavy cuts (opener “Ultimate,” “Supertheory of Supereverything”), which barely spill over the Spanish-tinged “Alcohol” and the fantabulous “American Wedding,” Gogol suffers beneath ST!‘s length and schizophrenia. Switching gears from the call-and-response antics of “Wonderlust King” to “Dub the Frequencies of Love” and then back to instrumental Romani punk closing title track, it’s a bit of a mess framed in Hütz’s perfectly broken English.

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This article appears in August 17 • 2007.

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