GENRE | MINIMALIST FOLK-ROCK
VERDICT | WORTH THE EFFORT
LABEL | FYO
RELEASE | 3.6.12
CUDDLE-MAGIC.COM
With a sizeable lineup and woodwind-tinged arrangements, you might expect the kind of lushly-orchestrated indie folk popularized by Bon Iver and others of that ilk to come from Cuddle Magic. But the band’s third release, Info Nympho, remains stubbornly odd, delivering the same peculiar harmonies and esoteric wordplay that made their last two albums so captivating.
Nympho is leaner than its predecessors, deploying trumpet, clarinet, flute, saxophone, and violin economically while drums and double bass trip through an endless series of polyrhythms. Its compositions flirt with atonality and display a penchant for idiosyncratic phrasing. Nympho can be downright challenging, refusing to rush towards climax or resolution. But those rare moments of convergence, when the drums settle into a groove or the brass section surges with sudden conviction, are all the more transcendent for it.
With Nympho, Cuddle Magic continues to refine the notion that there is beauty even in dissonance.
CUDDLE MAGIC
WED 8.1.12 AND THU 8.2.12
CLUB PASSIM
47 PALMER ST.
CAMBRIDGE
8PM/ALL AGES/$13/$15
@CLUBPASSIM
PASSIM.ORG
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