John Fordham Moulettes Sing Unto Me Quirky, gently chilling and upbeat in tirn, Moulettes match fine female harmonies against cello, violin and bassoon.
The tribal drums, splashes of cymbals and tight female harmonies are the core ingredients to BIRD's winning formula.
Handfuls of picked notes, the tapping of a calabash and sparse female harmonies add up to memorable songs.
There are male and female harmonies and the multi-instrumental surprises — guitar, cello, violin, harmonica, xylophone and whistling.
Mr. Hicks writes meticulously time-warped songs, with jazz harmonies and violin improvisations that hark back to the Hot Club of France, articulate lyrics that slyly observe the human comedy and brisk, close female harmonies to sweeten them up.
Now they use a drummer, and they've evolved from being an improvisational, Animal Collective kind of band to using hip-hop beats with ethereal, washy sounds on top of melodies and strong female harmonies.
They perform "Mining Camp Blues" with dual yodeling women's voices, and the English song "What Will We Do" in slightly edgier female harmonies than English divas Maddy Prior and June Tabor, from whom they learned it.
It takes basic components — male-female harmony, sturdy pop arrangements with light brushes of country, an unerring sense of when to shift a song from desperate to redemptive — and arranges them in several different ways, with mostly similar results.
Though male-female harmony is this group's cushion, Ms. Marie is nowhere around to soften the blow of Mr. Hoffman's striking opening verse: The other day I caught myself complaining How my boss has got me working overtime Then the stranger who was sitting there beside me Said 'I spend all day in the unemployment line.
