On debut album Luci e Guai, French quartet Crimi collapse the boundaries between different traditions, geographies, and eras. While exploring Julien Lesuisse’s Sicilian heritage, the band re-imagine Sicilian folk songs such as “La Vicaria” and “Mano d’Oro” by giving them a funky,  Algerian raï twist, or envisage a new Sicilian sound on their original compositions, from the delicate psychedelia of “Quetzalcoatl’' to the punk-folk of “Ciatu di lu Margiu.” Their music strikes a balance between looking inward and outward, between old and new, between luci e guai (light and trouble). It’s the autochthonous sound of a diasporic world.

– Megan Iacobini de Fazio