5.0 out of 5 stars
Wires of fire, March 12, 2008
This review is from: Rewiring Electric Forest (Audio CD)
Imagine the Arcade Fire, locked in a carnival funhouse and being smothered by a band of insane jazz-folkies.
That's the sound that Darla Farmer debut in their full-length debut, "Rewiring the Electric Forest," sounding like an indie-rock band is being eaten by a troupe of mad clowns. Their dark-edged indie-rock gets a load of trumpets, music-hall piano, waily fiddle and some nicely androgynous vocals -- and it makes you dance too.
"Sun... is a guise/for all of my favourite lies!" Clint Wilson sings over a tinkly xylophone, right before the song explodes in a raucous rush of vaguely countryish, ominous indie-rock. "And I am surprised/to learn the whole world is disguised...the words that I speak/are upside down and in my teeth/twisted and tangled/and necessary to repeat..."
Things don't slow up with the next few songs, including the eerily festive "History" and the harder, electronic-tinged rhythms of "Mechanical Thoughts." Not a lot of bands can fuse three sounds at once, but Darla Farmer succeeds -- sometimes it's hard to hear where the borders meet with rock, country-folk and a sort of electro-carnie sound.
But then the band tries out some new, less obvious melodies -- a flittering electro-jazzr-rocker, weird tense folk, a nightmarish spiral of dancy bass-driven pop, cluttered catchy rock'n'roll riddled with fiddle, tight country-rockers sputtering with trumpets, and finally the gloriously schizophrenic expanse of "The Apology."
I can tell you this: Darla Farmer is not typical Nashville music. And "Rewiring the Electric Forest" is a pretty good mishmash of musical styles, with darker undertones in there. And some of them are so weird -- like the shifting experimental pop of "The Strangler Fig" -- that they simply don't sink in until you've heard it a few times.
But regardless, the band plays their music with catchiness, dexterity, and a seamless blend of kooky instrumentation. Wilson and Bryce Leonard provide the core bass and guitar, which sound very tight and a bit grimy when you can hear them clearly. But they are usually surrounded by dark distorted keyboard, bouncy music-hall piano, church bells, off-kilter violin, smashing drums, tambourine and a cloud of jazzy brass.
All together, you can never tell if it will be poppy or a stretch of experimental clashes. I'm not quite as crazy about their country-folkier interludes, but fortunately they usually end with something suitably bizarre.
For the record, the lead singer is a man, despite his androgynous voice. Wilson croons out impressively through the entire album, sounding relatively chipper about the dark lyrics ("They'll dance upon the treetops/then they'll burn their forest down/they'd set fire to their bedrooms/if it meant that you'd be found"). It doesn't quite work when he tries the "thrash" vocals, though. He just sounds strained.
Despite a couple freshman flaws, Darla Farmer's "Rewiring the Electric Forest" is a delightfully mad carnival of rock'n'roll. Definitely a young band to keep your eye on.
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