Back Tuva Future

Though steeped in the roots of Tuvan folk sounds, «Back Tuva Future» is anything but a traditional collection of throat music — over the course of tracks like «Tuva Groove», «Kargyraa Rap» and «The Other Side of the Mountain», Kongar-ol Ondar touches base with Western music idioms ranging from dance-pop to funk to bluegrass, and although not everything works, the results are never less than fascinating. Most interesting of all is «Where Has My Country Gone?», a duet with Willie Nelson which proves once and for all that the human voice need not conform to standard definitions of beauty to achieve grace and power.