Juha: Polari (Jaffa Orange Station).

POLARI WAS ORIGINALLY RELEASED to some critical success in early 2002 by the now-defunct queer punk and hip-hop distro Agitprop! Records in Boston. Following lineup changes and the group's relocation to Portland, the CD was recently released again by group member Collin "JoJoBoy" Clay (with lyrics and more expansive liner notes) through his Jaffa Orange Station imprint.

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The CD, like its namesake (a gay subcultural slang term last popular in 1950's and 1960's Britain), is a sprawling, rollicking, giddily theatrical and complicated tapestry of words, sounds and ideas. Clay and Ghallib El-Khalidi smartly use the race and identity conflicts of the Middle East as a metaphor and jump-off point for intensely complicated conversation. A bit of everything gets covered here, from dialogues on misogyny and sexism among the "revolutionary activist" hip-hop set ("Melt By Your Mouth") to the consequence of militarily and religiously influenced closets (the scathing traditional cover "Iko Iko Phalastini").

Recorded in Maui, Hawai'i, the island's post-colonial history serves as a backdrop for a number of tracks, most notably the deceptively sing-songy lament "Hawai'ian Love Song." ("That Haole/ he all sentimental, he all inter-continental/ he all thinkin' everybody mental who don't want a border/ Borders Bookstore/ built over their bones/ Hawai'i/ The lovers the dreamers and Elvis so blue/ pineapples are native/ and the labor is too.") JoJoboy and co-producer Adam Capriccio's sample selection (everything from Islamic prayers to slack-key guitar loops to 1980's dance synths and bass drum hits), well-placed live instrumentation and tight vocal arrangements allow the musical backdrops to do justice to the density of their lyricism.

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