Limited edition playful, cartoon-y gothica by Jeremy Barnes of Bablicon and Neutral Milk Hotel.
Hawk And A Hacksaw was conceived and performed by genre-defying one-man orchestra Jeremy Barnes of Bablicon and Neutral Milk Hotel. The album features intricate piano-based compositions layered with accordion, percussion, horns, bells, a chicken, geese, gongs, cats, a duck, spoons, and pieces of tin. It was recorded over the course of 15 months in the Loire Valley (Saumur, France) with a variety of guest performers. Recalling Kurt Weill's orchestrations, Carl Stalling's visionary cartoon soundtracks and Tom Waits's more whimsical works, Barnes creates a playfully gothic atmosphere with his multi-layered, frantic compositions. Mixing field recordings with accordion, piano and bursts of drunken choruses, he generates a singular and unnerving orchestral whole. A song's direction can hinge on a dog's bark or a phone ringing, while cacophony and sweet, hymn-like harmonies cohabit in entertainingly unexpected passages. Influenced by everything from Eastern European folk music to Pierre Schaeffer to Spike Jones & His City Slickers, there's a healthy disregard for boundaries at play. A Hawk And A Hacksaw is a soundtrack for PT Barnum deceits and backwoods carnivals, top hats and curly moustaches, but maybe gone a little more screwy. What's more, everything is live-to-tape.
A Hawk And A Hacksaw recently supported Electrelane in the UK, and Broadcast and Manitoba in the US (a full European tour for autumn '04 is currently being organized). Last autumn, he opened shows across North America for the Warp artists with his idiosyncratic one-man show.
Barnes is currently recording the follow-up, due for release in early 2005. This debut album was originally released by Cloud Recordings in North America, the label run by members of Olivia Tremor Control.
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