Punch Brothers
Album: The Phosphorescent Blues
Label: Nonesuch
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.punchbrothers.com

Punch Brothers have been going almost a decade now, and have produced a series of rewarding, if often also quite thorny, musical excursions of an invariably experimental nature straying purposely well outwith the worlds of the bluegrass and contemporary classical musics from whence they first emerged. As ever, founder and mandolin supremo Chris Thile pools his considerable talents with guitarist Chris Eldridge, bassist Paul Kowert, fiddler Gabe Witcher and banjoist Noam Pikelny to produce a heady yet cleanly and crisply executed collection of new songs that take an unusual and skewed route through the conventions of roots and contemporary musical modes.

The band has worked quite a bit of late with in-demand producer T Bone Burnett, notably on the Inside Llewyn Davis projects, and his contribution in that role can now be heard to be key to the intriguing musical character of this latest band album, not least in the slightly opaque, weird nature of the ambitious ten-minute opening track, Familiarity, the biggest clue to whose episodic structure is undeniably evidenced in the theme of serendipity of interaction that in the band's view characterises the experience of modern life. Actually quite profound stuff, and never less than stimulating both musically and lyrically, forming a bond with the listener through expression of common feelings made possible by the everyday adoption of technology. The musical climate of experimental classical-newgrass is kindof familiar from previous Punch Brothers offerings, but the listener's challenge is invariably fresh and welcome.

From the Beach Boys "Smiley" overtones of Familiarity through to the precision displays of intelligent reinterpretations-cum-transpositions of classical pieces by Debussy and Scriabin, with on the other hand the chunky pop elegance of I Blow It Off and Magnet and the stealthily funky tread of My Oh My, there's an angle to The Phosphorescent Blues that's as entertaining as it's challenging. (But surely the album title is a bit of a misnomer, for there's not a twelve-bar in earshot and rarely a hint of the traditional blues.)

Even the comparatively straight-ahead rip-roaring bluegrass treatment of Boll Weevil has the power to move with its animated session-style delivery, although here the track might be judged a little like fish out of water in the company of much of the surrounding spirit of experimentation. The display of instrumental excellence still dazzles (how could it not?), but this time around possibly more incidentally, preferring to remain part of the means-to-an-end that enables this bunch of new songs to achieve a communal expressive groove that transmits itself so potently to the receptive listener. Esoteric and sterile Punch Brothers are emphatically not… The only thing is, I really can't condone the introduction of an unfortunate (and distinctly annoying) marketing ploy to entice folks to invest in the vinyl edition of the album with the inclusion of four extra tracks not available elsewhere - and for which ample room surely exists on the CD format.

David Kidman