A Hawk and A Hacksaw - Cervantine (2011)

Heather Trost and Jeremy Barns are no strangers, Heather formerly of the band FOMA and Barnes the former drummer of critically acclaimed band Neutral Milk Hotel, no need to say how big Barnes is in the music world, they’re also responsible on discovering, collaborating and putting on the music map a kid named Zach Condon, also known as non other than Beirut.

With only these references, there’s no need to say how much I expected this LP and how badly I love this band, while a lot of bands of the same scene tend to change the sound, they stick to the Balkan, Turkish and Eastern European sounds and the not compromising sound to a certain ethnicity in particular, each song is rich in influences, experimental and not over the top.

The relevance of this LP is that is the first one they do out of Leaf Records, that was their record label since the beginning, and the reason is that they decided to embark in the adventure of starting their new label called L.M. Dupli-Cations.

In this LP most songs are instrumental, but the focus turns to Stephanie Hladowski voice in the song “Mana Thelo Enan Andra” beautifully executed with Greek musical inspiration remembering the richness of the mix of cultures of the area, and also the more intentional reference to Turkish music in the song “Üskudar”, that mixes earthy sounds with a busy percussion and the perfect mix of nimble strings that go along side with the vocals and a tuba setting the sentiment in the foundations of the song.

The production is impeccable, and some songs mix a cinematic playing with the distance of the instrumentation, in “Cervantine” the strings back out to allow a protagonist lead to the wind instruments and the Arabic Percussion. But nothing sets a romantic landscape like “Lazslo Lassú”, an instrumental piece with accordion and violin that steal the attention of the listener with a crying melody.

This LP is a class act of what A Hawk and A Hacksaw are all about; it has both, sorrow and a playful nature, and ad interesting changes on the production, managing and mixing the sound in familiar ways but with what seems a more oriented purpose, previous releases were a mix of experiences and collaborations that reflect the idea of travels and ethnicity growing together in a jam session, but this time around the spirit is still there but the demonstration is that there is now a path followed and the sound has rested in what becomes a distinctive sound of A Hawk and A Hacksaw.

Being a fan of Beirut for some years now, I loved how they contributed to the sound of “Gulag Orkestar”, and their own records shared a lot of these sounds, but this time around it seems like they’re really reaching for a produced identity that doesn’t show the parade of experience they’re having in their travels, but shows the path that has been already followed, this is by far the most mature album they’ve made, no longer showing their past influences and experimentations of playful and messy nature, but really accomplishing a sound of their own in a very beautiful way.

Miguel de Cervantes would've been proud.

Tracklist:

1. No Rest For the Wicked
2. Mana Thelo Enan Andra
3. Espanola Kolo
4. Cervantine
5. Üskudar
6. Lazslo Lassú
7. At the Vulturul Negru
8. The Loser (Xeftilis)

Rate: 8.3/10

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DeVotchKa - 100 Lovers (2011)

DeVotchKa has had a lot of ups and downs in critiques opinions, some love them and some hate them, but the real deal is that nobody keeps far away from an opinion; the music they do is very complex due to a multi cultural influence and for sure this sort of experimentation can be very good or very bad, DeVotchKa has been guilty of staying in the gray area, not completely good like Beirut but not near bad either like say maybe Shakira. In terms of influence the new LP “100 Lovers” has every sound expected of one of their records; a little gypsy, a little cabaret, a little mariachi, a little merengue, a little tango, a little bolero and a lot of Eastern Europe folk music (Greece, Romania, Balkan), and the special blend of punk and rock music around this. This alone is a lot to chew, and they never seem to quite get a correct way of organized expression. None the less, the reasons mentioned are what make the albums less than mind-blowing, but they’re far from sucking completely.

“100 Lovers” have more Arcade Fire than I expected, and since the “Little Miss Sunshine” Soundtrack and a Grammy nomination they got to much more fame that even they could expect. Probably that fame is the one that leads to critiques to have two sides of the story they told and tend to judge harshly the fact that mixing all the sounds they do shoes very little commitment to genre and it’s hard to get a grip on what they’re all about, something that sounding more like Arcade Fire will not work. Still the music have a lot to offer, songs like “Sunshine” show a very sort of cinematic psychedelia as the blend with a merengue trumpet and tango violins give a sort of fresher look of the picture in “Contrabanda”, not to miss the centerpieces of the record, more classically DeVotchKa, being “100 Other Lovers” a very Arcade Fire kind of ballad, “The Man Of San Sebastian”, very tango and overly dramatic gypsy act, “Bad Luck Heels”, that mixes mariachi with a very Calexico (ish) sound.

But other songs like “All the Sand In All the Sea” are a display of what DeVotchKa can deliver with a more conceptual songs and transform their typical influences to a regular Indie Rock sound, I’m getting mixed feelings about this, the more I listen this songs the more I like them but the more they sound less a DeVotchKa song, and this talks good about the songs but bad about the band, because somehow I’m starting to doubt about the capacity to keep the sound together. For example, everyone has seen how Beirut pulled of one electronic EP and still sounded like Beirut, no matter if he’s playing with electronic music or with the typical world references of Balkan traditional music and Mexican style inspired songs, and on the same boat millions of artist can stand triumphant, from Calexico to Beck. The mixture turns good only in songs like “The Common Good”, which mixes Middle Eastern violins, with Spanish claps and then a guitar reverb sets noise and sound, but then this experiments of traditional sounds turn back again into indie rock formula.

If one thing they have credit on this album is that is their most accomplished record to date, the production of Craig Schumacher that produced Neko Case and Calexico, and also counts with collaborations of Thom Yorke’s band Atoms for Peace and (not to sound redundant (Calexico), and their rock edge is maybe what keeps them far of sounding as elegant as the rest of the excellent artists that pursue this kids of influences and get them misunderstood. Still is a great record, but not amazing.

Tracklist:

1. The Alley
2. All the Sand In All the Sea
3. 100 Other Lovers
4. The Common Good
5. Interlude 1
6. The Man From San Sebastian
7. Exhaustible
8. Interlude 2
9. Bad Luck Heels
10. Ruthless
11. Contrabanda
12. Sunshine

Rate: 6,5/10

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