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Subjects for Further Research:

As a true American, I relate more naturally to African music than European, which is how I explain my indifference to the Balkan, Irish, Breton, Irish, Basque, Irish, Italian, and Irish folk music I've passed by. The same goes for the "Nordic" stuff released in such abundance on Minneapolis's NorthSide label. But these pan-Scandinavian Swedish and Finnish guys, whose name means the Heathens, are intense--fast, sexual, even sometimes that great snow-country sham, shamanistic. Trä is where to begin; the Hippjokk wolfsong "Návdi/Fasa" is pretty scary; the borderland tribute Karelia Visa imports two female Finns who immediately start making nice--too nice. [2000]