Buzzin Music

A Hawk And A Hacksaw – Délivrance

A Hawk And A Hacksaw: Délivrance

Having relocated permanently to Budapest to prepare for a UK tour with Hungarian folk group Hun Hangár, A Hawk And A Hacksaw felt the need to document all that they had learnt from the region, the end product become their fourth album Délivrance following an EP recorded with Hun Hangár.

Délivrance is not so much just influenced by Hungarian folk music as founded entirely upon it. Whilst New Mexicans Jeremy Barnes (ex-drummer for Neutral Milk Hotel) and his partner Heather Trost retain an Western voice on the record with their occasional singing style in particular, the backing music, coming from so many of the musicians that A Hawk And A Hacksaw played with during their time in Budapest, is very much in the Hungarian style.

Jeremy Barnes says of the album:

“We’re not striving to find the authenticity of one region. I guess we have an outsider’s view of music and we’re trying to learn it, but also learn from it. We want to write music that reflects on us as Americans and outsiders as well.”

Whilst the Balkan influence was a starting point for a group like Beirut, such an immersion in one culture by a Western band is almost unprecedented. ‘Foni Tu Argile’ and ‘The Man Who Sold His Beard’ are rhythmically complex jams with wind instruments taking on trilled, urgent melody-lines. There is an atmosphere of communal dance on the record, but also one of hurtling towards a climax as well – a sense of danger as songs rush towards an end.

The sense of celebration also comes from tight instrumentation, with A Hawk And A Hacksaw and their various guest musicians clearly delighting in communal music making. Most of the tracks are instrumentals, with only a few tracks like ‘Kertész’ featuring vocals. This is the right level of input for the voice here, and it is largely due to its rare appearances throughout Déliverance that it obtains such a powerful quality. The terse ‘I Am Not A Gambling Man’ sees Jeremy Barnes break out of the hypnotic full-band pieces and, as with many a man of few words, what he sings is all the more affecting.

Délivrance is an album for those who are interested in hearing how the Western takes on Eastern European folk music, or for thosewho are interested in this wild documentation of A Hawk And A Hacksaw’s time in Budapest. It certainly is an intense and wonderful ride, though some will doubtless question its relevance to those outside the A Hawk And A Hacksaw fanbase, considering that Eastern European folk music can undoubtedly be found elsewhere and found with more authenticity.

Délivrance is out now on the Leaf Label.

Here is the link to A Hawk And A Hacksaw’s MySpace.