Artist: Les Negresses Vertes Album: Mlah

Les Negresses Vertes are an eclectic eight-piece French band that released this exuberant debut in 1988. There are so many ideas on this record! Mlah fairly buzzes with dynamism and street-savvy brio, with accordions and horns bursting out of the mix. Complex and serpentine rhythms undergird the affair, and the band at this stage seems rather a Gallic counterpoint to the Pogues, with bold, almost shouted “gang vocal” choruses (and an even more self-destructive frontman whose luck eventually ran out).

Yet Mlah opens with the haunting, beautiful "La Valse", a perfect vehicle for an accordion played with sensitivity. This same instrument becomes rollicking, wild, and even ominous sounding with the booming "Zobi la Mouche" (#2) while the singer Heino makes weird noises like a bee or who-knows-what insect. This is clever, weird, subtle, accomplished music with more than a hint of darkness, and I am hard pressed to say what else sounds remotely like it.