Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Cyclic Defrost Magazine

Cyclic Defrost Magazine

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A Hawk And A Hacksaw – Délivrance (The Leaf Label/Inertia)

Posted: 17 Aug 2009 11:14 PM PDT

It continually amazes me how some of the Earth’s most joyful, uplifting music comes out of contexts of misery and oppression. There are many examples from around the globe, but the tradition pertinent to this album is the Romany, birthed in the outcast castes of Ancient India and developed by wandering outsiders for centuries across Europe. While the core duo of A Hawk And A Hacksaw – Jeremy Barnes and Heather Trost – are not themselves Roma, their music has made a linear development over the last decade from outsider folk towards the dense, often rhythmically rapid music with a distinctly klezmer basis. They are also quite partial to a bit of nomadicism themselves, having been based in Saumer, France; Leicester, England; Albuquerque, USA, Budapest, Hungary and back to Zuzax, USA during the band’s life. There are 12 musicians listed as contributers on Délivrance and they range from those steeped in the Roma traditions to those coming in as passionate and learned outsiders. The results are both true to the form and excitingly new.

‘Foni Tu Argile’ starts the album with what sounds like a sample from an old klezmer recording, its grainy mono sound blurring all the timbres. This then cuts out and an acoustic guitar filigree breaks out the widescreen, pristine recording of sevillana brass and snaking clarinet and accordian solos. ‘Raggle Taggle’ utilises a similar conceit of starting with a lo-fi introduction before bursting into full colour half way through. Tracks like ‘The Man Who Sold His Beard’, ‘Hummingbirds’, ‘Turkiye’ and ‘Zibicui’ play out at breakneck speed and the fact that the musicians so accurately keep time over fractured time signatures at such pace is mesmerising. The closing couple of tracks, ‘Vasilis Carries A Flaming Skull Through The Forest’ and ‘Lassu’ introduce haunting, distorted air sounding drones. I have no idea what instruments create these, but their haunting qualities give the tracks a melancholy tinge to remind the listener that this music was originally birthed in difficult circumstances.

The Leaf Label is undoubtedly one of my favourites. Their roster continues to be wildly eclectic with the only unifying concern seeming to be that of quality. A Hawk And A Hacksaw come to the music of an ancient tradition with humility and creativity, providing another offshoot of depth to the label’s collection. Délivrance, as with much of the label’s output, is highly recommended.

Adrian Elmer

Leverton Fox – Country Dances (Gravid Hands)

Posted: 17 Aug 2009 11:13 PM PDT

British trio Leverton Fox take a rickety kitchen sink approach to their debut album ‘Country Dances’. Members Alex Bonney (electronics, trumpets) and Tim Giles (drums, percussion and electronics) are regulars on the London improv circuit, while Berkshire-based Matt Groom (electronics, guitars) brings a theatrical component from his background in film, doubtless more noticeable in their live shows but nonetheless evident on this recording. ‘Twisted radiophonic improv’ they call it, with a heavy dose of psychedelia and noise, and that’s pretty much on the mark: think early Cage and Stockhausen meeting Mouse on Mars, stoned, with added drums.

The radio reference is apt, as squall and fuzz slips and slides all over, twisting voices into ghostly robotic traces, static given solo slots like earnest jazz. Elsewhere digital tones dominate, like on ‘Prang’ where jerky rhythms slam like Ryoji Ikeda before collapsing in a riotous heap. Leverton Fox look also to that undersung giant of sampladelica Spike Jonze, and a similarly impish joy in creating kooky sounds from myriad sources abounds. Fortunately Country Dances also contains calmer moments, and pieces like ‘Robbed Out’ and ‘Absenting’ are their most enjoyable – spacious, spacey experiments in subtle stereo trickery and sonic minutiae.

Joshua Meggitt

at 5:12 PM