"Imagine Celtic folk music. Hear those fiddles? Play them fast and add jazzy piano riffs. It's getting very busy, a bit avant-garde. That's the music of southern Vermont quartet Assembly showcasing their new CD, January EP."
-The Village Voice
"To me, Assembly's music equals: energy, feeling, innovation, depth, fun and life-great tunes, skillfully arranged and played with fire!"
-Jay Ungar
Assembly, the young avant-folk quartet from southern Vermont, has a distinctive, driving sound that has drawn praise from such disparate sources as Irish fiddler Martin Hayes, The Village Voice, Los-Angeles Punk Zine Flipside and nationally known folk magazine SingOut!, and has caught the attention of The Boston Globe and NPR's All Things Considered. And all this for a group which formed in 1995, under the name Popcorn Behavior, when the band's members - then a trio - were aged 10, 12, and 13.
Piano, mandolin, fiddle, and drum, all occupying a fairly small range, sometimes hard to distinguish from each other, create a densely packed, overlapping texture, a wall of sound. The result is mesmerizing, trance-like music, combining dance-oriented rhythmic drive and meditative serenity.
Read more...