<\/p>\n
Probably the least surprising thing I learned this month is that Big Lazy composer-guitarist Stephen Ulrich spent the group\u2019s recent several-year break composing music for TV dramas like HBO\u2019s Bored To Death<\/i>\u2014because there\u2019s nothing this trio\u2019s music sounds like so much as the soundtrack to a particularly stylish noir film. Melding rootsy twang with a spooky, off-kilter, decidedly cinematic vibe, Big Lazy produces music that sounds like it was born to provide the atmospheric backdrop for clever, pointed dialogue full of pregnant pauses, set in dark alleys and seamy rooms.<\/p>\n
With Ulrich and bandmates Yuval Lion (drums) and Andrew Hall (acoustic bass) leading the way, opening tracks \u201cMinor Problem\u201d and \u201cUnswerving\u201d are drenched in this gritty, ominous vibe, before \u201cThe Low Way\u201d takes on a bouncier, sunnier feel that still carries a hint of foreboding to it; you know this mood won\u2019t last. <\/p>\n
And indeed, the aptly-named \u201cHuman Sacrifice\u201d comes on like a surf-rock hurricane before breaking down into a Spanish-flavored interlude. The cultural allusions continue as two minutes into \u201cAvenue X\u201d Ulrich caps a moody muted trumpet solo with the instantly recognizable Mission Impossible<\/i> riff\u2014and it fits right into the quirky-slash-spooky atmosphere of the track.<\/p>\n
\u201cNight Must Fall\u201d feels like a new genre of music: surf goth; it\u2019s like a Booker T & The MGs tune reimagined by the Crypt-Keeper from Tales Of The Crypt<\/i>. This atmosphere comes to a head with the again absurdly well-named \u201cBring Me The Head Of Lee Marvin.\u201d This track sounds like the theme song to an early \u201960s beach-horror B movie\u2014Blood On The Surfboard<\/i> or some such. The bleeding, screaming trumpet on the title track seals the deal; as they fall into a jazzy strut in the last minute, I\u2019m left grinning at nothing.<\/p>\n
Ulrich produces and the whole band handles the arrangements, which are consistently excellent. Using only acoustic bass and adding horns, organ and unusual percussion ensures the proceedings carry a vintage vibe that\u2019s a constantly little bit eerie and off-kilter. Don\u2019t Cross Myrtle<\/i> is a delightfully unsettling album full of the kind of moody instrumental music that inevitably sets the imagination to firing. What sort of unusual, compelling stories would you set to music like this? It\u2019s an album that leaves you wanting to know.<\/p>\n
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