A Hawk And A Hacksaw

This band from Albuquerque, New Mexico plays around in a variety of genres, including Mariachi, Klezmer, Balkan and Folk. Their first, self-titled, cd was featured as the soundtrack for the documentary Zizek! about the Slovenian cultural theorist Slavoj Zizek. It features a lot of ‘old-timey’ stride-like piano, noise effects and overt experimentation. Some of it evidences minimalism.

I’ve not heard their second cd, Darkness At Noon, released in 2005, but their third cd, The Way The Wind Blows from 2006 was actually the first one of theirs that I bought. It is on this cd that the Balkan influence becomes strong. In fact, Zach Condon of Beirut contributes to the fun, as does the Balkan brass band Fanfare Ciocarlia.

I bought it in Toronto, during the summer while teaching as part of the Moksha-Yoga teacher training. This was also the summer I was put up in the home of a French family who were vacationing back home. While in their home, I found the full 7-season box set of Buffy The Vampire Slayer. In one night, I watched the whole first season and was hooked! Upon my arrival home in Eugene, where we lived at the time, I ordered the full set for ourselves.

This past summer, back in Toronto for another Moksha-Yoga Teacher Training, I made my annual pilgrimage to Soundscapes on College Street. It is probably my favorite independent cd store in North America! I got A Hawk and A Hacksaw’s latest cd, Deliverance. The good news, is this is their strongest, most coherent offering yet. Still mainly Balkan, the dynamics and melodies are more varied and interesting. “The Man Who Sold His Beard” is worth the price of admittance itself!