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This five piece collective (Colleen Kinsella, Caleb Mulkerin, Tom Kovacevic, Micah Blue Smaldone, Chriss Sutherland) manage to side step the great danger of acoustic music. Put simply: many acoustic musicians are so bound to the maxim of simplicity that their music is too plain, too bland. Not so with these Portland (Maine) musicians.
This five song EP harkens back to the days when "psychedelic" was synonymous with mind blowing country and folk influenced music. To the era when young people in America realized that bluegrass was our country's chamber music, that a handful of people with organic instruments could make smart, challenging and wonderfully complex music. You can hear the joy of making music with your friends on this recording. Everybody shines, everybody works together. Like any great music ensemble the whole is greater than its parts.
And it's not just the individual musicians who make up the "parts". The songs feature elements from a wide variety of traditions. One the first track, "Hangman", the vocals take on neo-tribal ululations that echo the mandolin. There's an almost medieval woodwind that haunts several tracks (especially "Liberty Unknown"). Guitar may be the central instrument but it's never the only instrument, no song here runs us across typical acoustic guitar ground.
The most remarkable instruments on this CD are the voices, each powerful and distinct. So distinct that you'd believe that they could never work together. Until the wicked harmonies kick in, then it sounds like the assembled voices were created to be blended as one.
There are some reference points for new listeners. "My Lady Coffin" is a great song that could be easily slipped in the early work of Neil Young, and would shine there like a lost jewel. The EP's closer "Three or More" sounds like a rural Modest Mouse tune (and may be more satisfying than that band's recent work).
But still, everything works here works together. This is not an assemblage with odd, jarring bits sticking out here and there. This recording shows what "well produced" should mean. It shows how different elements can be shaped into some thing beautiful.
Fire on Fire's debut EP is like a history of americana. Taking ingredients from the seaports to the canestoga wagons of manifest destiny this band has perfected their own take on complex, yet traditional music. Call these song prairie chanties. Or just call them wonderful.
Fire on Fire
http://www.myspace.com/fireonfiremusic
Young Gods Records
http://www.younggodrecords.com
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