Dark Dark Dark’s The Snow Magic
Download “New York Song“ | Dark Dark Dark’s The Snow Magic is one of the most refreshing albums I’ve heard this year. In stark contrast to the increasing number of bands who deploy a large ensemble to play on their record (which I have nothing against), this Minneapolis quartet finds a distinct, wholesome voice, full of haunting tales and eruptive movements, within the realm of what each member plays: an accordion that rises, falls and ripples, and a marriage of cello, bass and banjo that steadily chugs on. Add to that the longing voice of singer Nona Marie Invie, whose urgency Marshall LaCount grounds with his soothing, storytelling voice, and you understand why drummer extraordinaire Martin Dosh’s contribution to the record is decidedly on the minimal side—Dosh simply wraps his rhythms along the contours of the band’s beast of a sound. Continue to listen to one more song from the album.
Though the album was recorded in a Minneapolis house (in the middle of a “frigid winter”), it will transport you to author Juan Rolfo’s village of the living dead. It’s not the mere mention of ghosts, bones and fermenting bodies that warrant such an evocation, or even the idea that perhaps some stories can only be told by the dead or what the dead have left behind—the empty bed of the dying, for example. It’s all of that, plus the deep hues of darkness the band manages to be playful with. In creating a dynamic texture that contains such a world, producer Robert Skoro has done a marvelous job. More telling, however, is the quote by Anaïs Nin that prefaces the band’s current bio: “People living deeply have no fear of death”.
Download “Colors” | One thing I can’t help noting is that the album opens with “Ashes”, which has an abrupt beginning that sounds like the narrative is already in the thick of things. “Dig a Grave”, one of my favorites on the record, is a slower-paced song I suspect to somehow hold a key to all others, and one that would’ve made a fantastic prologue of a sort. “Colors”, which immediately precedes “Dig a Grave”, works as a great opener, too. This is nitpicking, however; the album came out yesterday, and is easily one of the year’s bests.
Dark Dark Dark is playing two New York shows this December: The Cake Shop on the 16th, and Union Pool on the 19th. Two more songs from the album, “Trouble No More” and “A Spell for Letting Go”, can be heard in the Secret Garden videos we shot with the band.
