A Hawk and a Hacksaw: Delivrance

Label: Leaf

The Balkan sound that began invading indie-rock a few years ago finds its fullest, most sincere expression on Delivrance, the newest work by A Hawk and a Hacksaw. In fact…this stuff is quite pure! Onetime Neutral Milk Hotel drummer Jeremy Barnes and his partner, Heather Trost, recruited a cadre of some of the world’s finest players—including Hungarian cimbalom star Kalman Balogh (and his own band’s saxist, Peter Bede)!—to play along with their lovely, fiery accordion and strings on these ten tracks. How do you know Barnes and Trost write great songs and melodies? You likely won’t be able to tell the originals apart from the traditional tunes they adapt and pass along (unless you’re reading the inner sleeve). The entire assemblage plays with incredible, often feverish energy and devotion, sometimes evoking the speed and precision of Bulgarian clarinet star Ivo Papasov and his wedding band. Brilliant! (M.L. Thrope)