Partly recorded in a remote Romanian village with members of the Balkan folk group, Fanfare Ciocarlia, The Way the Wind Blows is as nomadic as its creator. Barnes grew up in New Mexico, moved to Chicago for school, and dropped out to drum in Neutral Milk Hotel.  Full text...

The band is smart to keep things short; outside of traditional Jewish enclaves, too much of this type of music would become grating.  Full text...

Enchanting, beguiling, and charming, perhaps even strange – just some of the adjectives that describe Beirut’s recent album, Gulag Orchestra (DiS review). A Hawk And A Hacksaw dabble in the same musical field – eastern European folk – and like Beirut their sound justifies the praise heaped upon them.  Full text...

Albuquerque, New Mexico, would seem to be an unlikely place to begin an appreciation of traditional Balkan music. Yet two acts from the town, globetrotters both, have taken unheralded music from a continent away and, with English lyrics, have created a fusion of culture and emotion. These acts are Beirut and A Hawk And A Hacksaw.  Full text...

Accompanied by the ensemble’s wild and untamed gypsy brass, Barnes’s songs are twisted out of their conventional indie-rock context into something far more feral and exciting.  Full text...

The band's swollen carny horn-charge carries the album's European melancholy along on stronger legs. There is a more definite fleshing out of parts/players here, the music moving with a spirited energy, even when it's resigned to melancholy.  Full text...