This is really unique music. I'm not going to mention any genres because I truly don't think it falls into any genre. Most of the songs are long and somewhat calm instrumentals based around acoustic guitars, clean electric guitars, a dense rhythm section of warm percussion and distinct bass, and saxophone. Yep. Saxophone. And it doesn't bother me at all. It really fits in well with the somber melody and creativity of the writing. All of the instruments are always playing independent parts that layer together superbly, and the mix fluctuates to draw attention to whatever particular instrument should be taking control at any given moment. There are some vocals though, make no mistake. It's usually relatively calm singing in most cases, but there are some spoken passages and some shouted segments. "Cutthroats" and "They Need" open, and are the most vocal-driven tracks. Four lengthy instrumentals follow, among which "The Baker and His Wife" employs some discordant passages at the end (complete with a little distorted bass) - a direction that continues with "On Fish Street" and gets a little grating with some pretty abrasive horns. They start to lose me a little bit with that shit because it kills the mood, but thankfully it's kept to a minimum. Closing out is the title track, running a massive 13+ minutes. The piece varies from calm to slightly more aggressive (usually without distortion). There's a little bit of discordance, and sometimes the horns even behave like vocals, which is really interesting. Actual vocals come in around the five-minute mark, and from that point on the song is pretty much golden... This material was recorded at the hands of Shellac's Bob Weston, and it sounds damn fine to me. The drums sound fucking perfect (and the performance is incredibly strong as well), the bass has a really unique tone, the guitars are bright and spacious, and the saxophone sounds great too. The mix is completely clear as well, which really helps here because there's a lot of somewhat intricate layering going on. I wouldn't say it's all that technical, but there are some passages here and there that are somewhat complex. The layout is okay. It's quite minimal, and mostly in black and white with almost no text. The front cover has a manipulated photo of a tree with a foreboding sort of storm in the background, and inside are photos of, appropriately enough, a barn (granted they're in black and white, so whether or not it's a "red barn" is a mystery). The only text inside is the band lineup. No lyrics, that's it. This is definitely one of the most original bands I've heard in a long time. I really like the atmosphere that they create when they stick with the darker, fairly melodic passages, and I like the vocals as well. I don't mind the heavy presence of instrumentals at all, but if things remained steady and didn't get so chaotic and dissonant at times I would enjoy it even more. Good work. I think this is a repress, so something new might be in the works... keep an eye out.
[404]
Running time - 50:59, Tracks: 7
[Notable tracks: They Need, Close Cover Before Striking, Get in Before the Rain]
Murder in the Red Barn - http://www.404records.com/murder/
