A Hawk and a HacksawDélivranceReview

Délivrance careens its way between the southern United States and Europe with all the delirious aplomb of a charabanc full of troubadours tipsy on the local homemade vino, intent on having a good time come hell or high water.

Hailing from New Mexico and now based in Budapest, the A Hawk And A Hacksaw duo (Jeremy Barnes leading from the front on accordion, drums and vocals, and Heather Trost on violin) consolidate their recent flirtations with Balkan folk music in the company of musicians drawn from recent collaborators, the Hun Hangár Ensemble.

Blending traditional tunes with original material, Délivrance is a characteristically excitable fourth album in which torrential cascades of conventional and folk instruments turn into driven downpours of multi-hued colours, sheer unfettered adrenalin and noise levels that seem to get progressively louder with each new track.

The Greek-derived, bouzouki-led, melody-drenched Foni Tu Argile gets things off to an infectious start, Barnes's own Kertész an incendiary combination of accordion, violin and cimbalom that sounds as if it has been lifted from a Bucharest café band. No less combustible a carnival is the hyperventilating Turkiye, which deftly incorporates new material with existing melodies from Bosnia, Serbia and Turkey. A brief pause for breath comes courtesy of the morose but wonderfully titled Vasalisa Carries A Flaming Skull Through the Forest, its world-weary clarinet, shivering cimbalom and clattering cowbell percussion surprisingly affecting.

But underneath all the noise and frenetic cross-fertilising of old and new, East and West, an obvious musical intelligence is at work. Happily, it also clearly recognises the value of fun. As riots go, this is one you'll enjoy finding yourself caught in the middle of.