Dark Dark Dark – The Snow Magic

This is the sound of a band with a lot of skellingtons in their closets. Ghosts, ghouls, Junk Bones, graveyards and “strong fermenting bodies” haunt the lyrics of Dark Dark Dark’s debut. The music ambles out of the speakers like something from an age gone by, accordion; banjo; assorted strings; slapped and beaten objects filling in for more traditional percussion. Dark Dark Dark have a strange aversion to plugging things in, and a morbid fascination with the afterlife. True to the band’s story this isn’t music which is easily placed geographically ”“ influences rain in from the globe over ”“ but the atmosphere evokes a time long gone.That story, then: apparently, the band formed after lead lady and professional traveller Nona Marie Invie met lead man and run-away sailor Marshall LaCount. Dark Dark Dark is the product of two people’s desire to not be constrained, to simply make just enough money to never have to stop moving. Their constant travelling is evident through the music ”“ while the most obvious touchstone is Beirut and similarly Eastern-tinged pop, there are touches of Regina Spektor at her most Soviet, Malajube at their most French, Arcade Fire at their most Canadian. It’s curious that music which conjures up to me so many distinct influences and disparate locations can sound so cohesive, and strangely unique ”“ the album exists independently of any particularly place, or even time, and wilfully denies you any comfortable generic definition.There is a surprising amount of hope in an album which mainly deals with death, loss, despair, rotting corpses and the bleak midwinter. When LaCount sings on ‘Dig Out A Grave’ “if your ghost could stop for a round I would surely be living it up,” while semantically it’s a regretful, mournful lyric lamenting a lost love, it’s injected with a fond remembrance by the intonation by LaCount’s vocals. Somehow, the band makes the lines “you’ve got a strong fermenting body / you’ve got a body made of lead / I want to hold you underwater / calculate your next breath” sound like a sing-along sea-shanty, with little regard for the fact that they’re singing about a decomposing human being.It’s not all good. There is a certain something missing here, just the touch of inspiration that could have turned a very good album into a great one ”“ lyrically the album sometimes undermines its own good intentions, each song blurs into the next a bit too easily and it’s about ten minutes too long ”“ while the last two tracks are actually very strong points (particularly the penultimate ‘Winter Coat’), by the time it gets there I’m already a little drained from the forty minutes of death and darkness that have preceded. But this is, in the very best way possible, an “interesting” album, full of mystery and intrigue, an early snapshot of a clearly talented band who may just require an album or two to really hit their stride. 78%Dark Dark Dark on Myspace Get The Snow Magic from SAD music