Brief, paraphrased translations are provided for each of the slow songs, while no translations are provided for the dance songs. The generous number of examples of both song types provides a good introduction to these genres, and a welcome opportunity for comparison of styles between various singers and different villages. The meselaki dyli selections recorded in Gyngys Village, for example, are sung in heterophonic style by a group of men's and women's voices, and provide an important contrast to the meselaki dyli examples of Piricise Village, which are performed by solo voices. Multicultural Media is to be commended for releasing these valuable recordings and for translating the original notes. The notes however, and the format in which they are presented, are confusing and perhaps require more editorial comment than the brief disclaimer at the back of the booklet which describes both the difficulties of transliteration as well as the diverse professional backgrounds of the researchers.
Several problems are apparent.
Some tracks include no annotation other than the name of the genre. None of the songs or instrumental pieces are given a title, and none of the performers appearing in the recording or the accompanying photographs are identified or credited. The editors state that they wanted to preserve the tone of the original Japanese notes, but the original commentary seems to need some additional context and frame, particularly for the notes which accompany the first half of the disc. While the romantic travelogue-type narration employed here can perhaps be forgiven for its exuberant enthusiasm, at other times the notes are dangerously misleading as when, for example, the first annotator proclaims that in general, Gypsy dancing has no fixed gestures or organized movements. Although these recordings were originally released in 1992, with the songs from the first half recorded in the 1980s, the photographs in the accompanying booklet are from 1963, leaving some question as to when the rest of the field recordings were made.