Hazmat Modine
Bahamut
Barbès 2006

01. Yesterday Morning
02. It Calls Me
03. Bahamut
04. Fred of Bellaroy
05. Broke My Baby's Heart
06. Almost Gone
07. Steady Roll
08. Everybody Loves You
09. Lost Fox Train (for Joe)
10. Dry Spell
11. Ugly Rug
12. Who Walks in When I Walk Out?
13. Grade-A Gray Day
14. Man Trouble
15. Untitled

Hazmat Modine plays the kind of blues one might have found in a whorehouse in New Orleans had the city been built on the Black Sea somewhere alongside Macao and inhabited by Gypsies. The band is driven by a pair of harmonicas, backed by tuba, drums, guitars, and trumpet, with the addition of special guests playing exotic instruments such as the claviola, the cimbalom (Romanian hammered dulcimer) or the Chinese mouth-organ, the bass sax and the Sarusaphone. Wade Schuman has the appropriately throaty voice of someone who has both hopped freight trains and collaborated with the throat singers of Tuva (really...).

Yep, those dirty yanks again, jacking someone else's heritage... I went to see them live one night at the "Knitting Factory" - just before leaving their home-town New York. Could've chosen Lidell or even Ellen Alien instead, but sometimes I'm drawn to new discoveries, and Hazmat happened to look quite promising. They put a nice show that time and I fell in love with the music, the people, and the whole damn city, eventually. Just lots of talent and lots of charisma. Bahamut was recorded all over the map - from Milan, to Bali and Sri Lanka - but somehow will always stick to me as a staple of NYC. I listen to it a lot, 'specially when I wanna revel in my own privacy. Of course it'd go down just as well in whore saloons and smoky bars though.

>> [soon replaced] (91mb)

[geek] Changing servers once again - this time to SendSpace, which is supposed to be faster and more reliable than DF. I got a one-year ticket, so it's all set. Older files will be transplanted gradually, starting with the newer stuff and working backwards. Mmkay, so knock on wood and cross your fingers now. [/geek]