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. ~ Raymond McKinney