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I have good news for you: If you're planning a ball that is to be held in a ghost-town there's a perfect soundtrack for you: "A Salesman of Death" by The Magnificent Seven.
These five fine folks present a wonderful collection of six songs that explore the haunted and dusty side of Americana, imagine 16 Horsepower if you excised all of the rock elements. These pieces waltz around dusty and abandoned rooms in your head focusing on the grand themes of death and dancing.
The tunes are melancholic, you can cut the dolorous mood (or your wrists) with a razor. But they're also lovely and moving, three of the six ("Les Chants de Maldoror", "Hell, The Devil and How to Sell Your Soul" and "Glory and Pain") are just incredible. The quieter numbers seem to waver on the breeze, blowing through forgotten orchards of gnarled trees and twisted memories. The more spirited ditties make you realized that dancing with the devil may not be a bad thing at all. Put together they're the perfect accompaniment for a trip lost towns in the American South West.
Which just makes it all the more impressive that The Magnificent Seven are from Sweden. They've skilled musicians who never pile on too much or smother a song in arid production. The "bare bones" feeling of this EP is misleading, there's always something going on just as there's always life in the desert.
Where ever these stories are set, be in it the lost west or modern Sweden, it's worth the trip.
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