The Horse's Ha | Of the Cathmawr Yards

Hidden Agenda (2009)
By MICHAEL PATRICK BRADY  |  June 8, 2009
2.0 2.0 Stars

090623_horsers_main

Despite a solid roster of Chicago underground vets, the Horse's Ha fail to show signs of life on what proves to be a sleepy album of wispy folk. Led by Janet Bean (Eleventh Dream Day) and James Elkington (Zincs), the band aspire to a sophisticated synthesis of English folk, jazz, and bossa nova rhythms — a lofty goal that fails to materialize.

Instead, Of the Cathmawr Yards makes only superficial attempts at escaping the slick folk rut it gets stuck in. The pleasant "Asleep in a Waterfall" sets the blueprint, and the rest of the songs all sound like variations on that winning, though limited, theme. The incomparable Fred Lonberg-Holm and his cello are often the only notable color, as he lends feeling to otherwise drab numbers like "Wild's Empty Bedroom" and "Liberation."

His usually intense improvisations are still bridled, however, by the strictness of the band's arrangements. Track after track of politely plucked guitar and mid-tempo duets for Bean and Elkington, whose harmonies are strained and oddly distracted, makes for tedious listening. Of the Cathmawr Yards is Ambien-fueled folk that never rises above room temperature, well-crafted yet lacking in passion and vitality.

Related: Review: Humcrush | Rest at World's End, Best in their field, Covering Lacy, More more >
  Topics: CD Reviews , Fred Lonberg-Holm, Eleventh Dream Day, jazz
| More


Most Popular
ARTICLES BY MICHAEL PATRICK BRADY
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   THE FALL | YOUR FUTURE OUR CLUTTER  |  April 27, 2010
    If you didn’t know any better, you might think that Your Future Our Clutter is a recording of a raving old lunatic heckling a very solid instrumental band.
  •   SAM AMIDON | I SEE THE SIGN  |  April 15, 2010
    Sam Amidon is fascinated with the songbook of old Americana, and his radical yet tasteful reimaginings of traditional folk ballads and hymns breathe new life into a form often seen as quaint and old-fashioned.
  •   RED SPAROWES | THE FEAR IS EXCRUCIATING, BUT THEREIN LIES THE ANSWER  |  March 30, 2010
    Post-rock bands are like silent-film actors — bereft of words, they tend to use broad gestures to ensure that you get the point.
  •   THESE NEW PURITANS | HIDDEN  |  March 09, 2010
    Hidden is a real UK horror show, mixing grim, industrial beats with mannered, regal horns and a persistent aura of foggy uneasiness. These New Puritans reveal a penchant for æsthetic violence and revolutionary action that, though rarely convincing, matches the uncompromising intensity and martial tenor of the music.
  •   CLOGS | THE CREATURES IN THE GARDEN OF LADY WALTON  |  March 03, 2010
    Fusion experimenters Clogs take a modern approach to folk-flavored chamber music.

 See all articles by: MICHAEL PATRICK BRADY