Album review: Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino, Pizzica Indiavolata (Discovery Records)

This strikingly original band from southern Italy have been taking the traditional taranta dance of Salento and giving it contemporary resonance and edge since 1975.

Although there are soul-searching ballads and mournful lullabies, turbo-charged numbers driven by thundering frame drums, pumping accordion and throaty, impassioned vocals dominate. Traditional music has rarely sounded more intense, mysterious and urgent.