by Raymond McKinney
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.