New York quintet O’Death have something rare - a sound that we’ve not heard a million times already. While there’s a few outfits doing this sort of scratchy hobo-punk Americana thing, Broken Hymns, Limbs and Skin has a frantic yet contemplative air that I’ve not noticed anywhere else as of yet.
Far from the purist attitudes of die-hard folkers, O’Death add junk percussion and a self-conscious sense of spoof to the guitars, banjos and fiddles of the traditional Americana arsenal. The vocals, particularly, seem to play on the down-at-heel hickdom that the uninitiated associate with folk music, so that Broken Hymns, Limbs and Skin ends up sounding something like Neil Young and the Beverly Hillbillies channelling esoteric hip-hop and hipster indie.
O’Death’s music eschews virtuoso snobbery for a mixture of energetic fun and introspective contemplation, often within the space of the same song. Broken Hymns, Limbs and Skin is darkly humorous music for tough times; when life hits the skids, wailing along to “Mountain Shifts” through a haze of methylated spirits will make it all go away for a few minutes, before you end up blubbering into your beer to “Grey Sun”… and looking at today’s financial headlines, the city traders will be feeling the vibe.
Broken Hymns, Limbs and Skin is defined by its changes of pace, with songs veering from funereal oompah waltzes to amphetamine jigs of skirling fiddle and rattling snare; this is the same approach to dynamics that the ska-punk outfits took, but O’Death have a little more sonic variety up their sleeves, and producer Alex Newport has done a great job of capturing a realistic “live” sound from the relentlessly lo-fi instrument selection.
O’Death pull off that low-life high-theatre thing that Gogol Bordello do so well - Broken Hymns, Limbs and Skin is its Americana equivalent, waking up thirsty on the dusty prairie before wandering into town with hat in hand and a hard-luck story on its lips.
But O’Death aren’t just moping around. There’s a surprising degree of maturity to their outlook - “Angeline” is both a hungover lament and a hymn to acceptance, a sonic coming-to-terms; while the dark images of “Vacant Moan” are as insightful as they are surreal. And the moody moments are balanced out by passages of madcap folk-funk - the intro and chorus breaks to “Crawl Through Snow” are much warmer than the chilly title of the track might imply, and there are few tracks on this album that won’t have your foot tapping.
So if you’ve just watched your stock portfolio dissolve as we slide inexorably into a global financial crash, dance your cares away to the sound of O’Death, and remember that the simple things will always have currency.
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Posted in Music reviews |
Tags: Americana, Broken Hymns Limbs and Skin, country, folk, O'Death, punk
