Portland Oregon based five piece Musée Mécanique have come in to fruition as folk is most certainly rocketing into the charts all manner of folk acts not only making invigorating and exciting albums but also getting huge amounts of airplay and making a fair amount of money, so with this how does a band like Musée Mécanique stand out from such a crowded genre?
Well for a start Hold This Ghost doesn’t have the instant ‘pop’ hooks of various other releases, instead Micah Rabwin’s somber, softly spoken vocals and delicate guitar workings gently entice you in and slowly but surely as the album develops you find it’s quiet charm and haunting atmosphere compelling you to listen further and explore the melancholic piece to its entirety. There is a subtle beauty that lacks with a lot of the more mainstream titles, the sad and expressive lyrics are allowed to flow giving the listener more of a grand picture as to what they are about.
Their elegant debut took almost three years to make and it’s this striving for perfection which has meant Musée Mécanique have had the time to develop their sound and persona with an album that seems to constantly look to the past, so much so it seems an obsession of the two main songwriters Micah Rabwin and Sean Ogilvie who take every opportunity to create an air of nostalgia, from the first notes of opener ‘Like Home’ you can tell this is not your usual folk album and with this strive to create music that wouldn’t be out of place being played through a Victorian gramophone it’s quite rightly so that their name be taken from a museum of old-fashioned coin-operated music boxes in California.
Musée Mécanique’s eerie orchestration and interesting mix of old school instruments with modern techniques and production processes can make this a hard listen at times but with strong tracks such as the accordion driven ‘Sleeping In Our Clothes’ and the enchanting finale ‘Our Changing Skins’ Hold This Ghost has a grace and power that is pretty unique.
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