A double-disc restrospective of highlights from the first ten years, including rare and previously unreleased material! There is nothing in Christian or secular music quite like the songs of freak-folk auteur Daniel Smith. His band Danielson (a.k.a. Danielson Famile) has earned a cult following by filtering Bible-inspired themes through an idiosyncratic matrix of angular melodies, jarring rhythms, and childlike lyrics.
Trying Hartz combines studio tracks from the band's first decade (1994-04) with a smattering of live recordings, delineating (if not clarifying) Smith intentions as a musical provocateur. Glockenspiels, tinny keyboards and stripped-down drums give tracks like
Flip Flop Flim Flam, Thanx to Noah, and
A No No the feel of a children's pageant gone berserk. Certain concerns emerge from the obscurity -
Cutest Lil' Dragon is a warning against temptation, for instance. Occasionally, Danielson moves beyond its herky-jerky sound towards something more accessible, as in the softly ruminative
Fetch the Compass Kids. Smith and his cohorts are downright entertaning on the participatory live number
Don't You Be the Judge. The prevailing mood, though, is somewhere between giddy and disturbing, making
Trying Hartz an experience not for the tender-eared or narrow-minded. - itunes
CD Details
- Release Date: November 11, 2008
- Record Label: Secretly Canadian
- UPC: 656605018027
- Number of Discs: 2
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