Hazmat Modine

Description

Illegitimate children of Tom Waits, Captain Beefheart and Dr. Feelgood; the New York combo led by the brilliant guitarist and harmonica player Wade Schuman returns to France with a stunning new album, blending genres and eras from 1920s-30s blues to klezmer, from swing and Rn'B to New Orleans sounds. Hazmat Modine mixes, with virtuosity and humor, the sound of tango, klezmer, polka, Latin music, calypso, and many other components of Afro-American roots, to deliver what an American critic perfectly described as “an authentic sonic communion.” This may not be as surprising as it might first seem, if one considers what American music is: a melting pot of different styles imported — just like most of its people — from the four corners of the world. The unique result that emerges evokes something both ancient and familiar. One inevitably thinks of the sound of the old recordings of ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax; but with the difference that the musicians’ creative contribution subtly goes beyond the nostalgic memory of purists.