Dead Combo is a duo from Portugal that performs a mix of the melancholic and impassioned fado of Lisbon, the spaghetti-western compositions of Italy’s Ennio Morricone, jazz, and world music. Think of it as postmodern irony wrestling playfully with urban traditions, on the borderline of European kitsch.

The band’s first album, Vol. I, was hailed by late world-music guru Charlie Gillett. Since then, Dead Combo, which makes a long-awaited North American debut at Electric Owl on Tuesday (March 10), has become one of Portugal’s leading contemporary-music acts.