LIBRA: THE MATCHMAKING OF ANTIGONE

While it's difficult to source English language (or indeed Latin alphabet) information about DARNAKES beyond their discography, I have now listened to all 3 of their recordings as of this date, and while they are all enjoyable, "Libra" is their most progressive, and indeed a sweet union of prog and folk Balkan-style. That blend is all the more precious for its apparent scarcity.

Perhaps because folk music as we tend to think of it is based on rhythms and melodies that predate the British Invasion by centuries or millenia, I tend to think of purveyors as being elders as well, particularly if it resonates with barely recollected Jewish songs and dances from my childhood that were invariably initiated by impossibly wizened distant relatives. Looking at google maps' rendering of Thessalonki, the region where Darnakes' originates, it's no surprise that I hear parallels to eastern European, Arabic, Israeli, and Mediterranean traditions. And, incidentally, from their picture, the group members are not that old...or at least weren't when the photo was taken. Yeah and I'm not that old either, right!

What they are, however, is a village of sound. You never know what Darnakes will throw at you, from the inaugural retro psych notes of "Flirting with Destruction" to the sultry persuasion of "Triste" to the hazy jam of " Paraesthesiae" to the MANU CHAO influenced (possibly a cover?) "Strange Words" to the smoky and sexy closer "Giuditta". The variation in vocal styles, instrumentation, and tempo is all admirable for its own sake as we have seen on many preferred albums, but at no point here does it seem artificial. That adroit interweaving of in the ancient and the modern, even if that modern is sometimes firmly rooted in the 1970s - and who here can blame them for that - in a manner utterly lacking in self consciousness, makes "Libra" a winner whatever your sign.