Contramano

Formed in New York City by Argentinean expat Pablo Cubarle, Contramano expropriates punk's willfulness and marries it to unconventional instrumentation -- in the form of a cello. Cubarle's classically trained, but in Contramano his cello is no precious affectation; he saws at the thing with unflinching aggression, driven as much by the insanity of Argentina's political and economic troubles as by New York's punk tradition. Still, the group maintains a playful (and, incidentally, bilingual) presence, driven by Cubarle's accented English, which sometimes charms and sometimes sounds a bit snot-nosed and gauche.