Fire on Fire - 'The Orchard' (Young God) Released 01/06/09

Some bands’ biographies are just a bit too perfect. Take Fire on Fire as an example. Their back-story – the five-piece sharing a run-down blue farm house in the deepest, darkest rural Maine like some psychedelically mangled Monkees, with a battered mandolin in one hand and a jug of lethally potent moonshine in the other – sounds suspiciously like the type of make-believe crafted by a label in the hope of infusing some magic to the mundane.

For once, the music matches the far-fetched scenario. Whilst Fire on Fire’s self-titled, excellent 2007 debut EP was still audibly indebted to the then-fresh US odd-folk sounds, ‘Orchard’ is something totally, refreshingly different. Imagine an outfit armed with an uncommonly well-stocked junk store’s worth of arcane instruments - harmoniums, banjos, dobros, accordions - existing in a hermetically sealed, candlelit bubble, with only a tiny sliver of modernity allowed to infiltrate the authentically old-timey feel of the setting. Add an unshakeable and well-founded belief in the creative potential of the time-worn templates of folk tradition and a knack for cutting tracks bluegrass-style, with the whole combo executing their communal hollering, ramshackle yet sweet harmonies and intricate picking ‘n’ strumming in front of a single microphone. You’ve landed with a fairly accurate idea of what ‘Orchard’ sounds like: simultaneously timeless and unmistakably ‘now’; equally indebted to vintage weirdness of ‘Anthology of American Folk Music’ and updated takes thereof executed by the likes of Akron/Family; unable to decide whether to be hillbillies or hipsters and deciding to put a foot in each camp, with genuinely striking results that conjure images of foot-stomping front-porch jamborees set at some indefinable point somewhere between 1909 and 2009.

Not that ‘Orchard’ is entirely perfect. A few tunes outstay their welcome; a couple of others are disfigured by lack of killer melodies. But faced with the likes of the title track (a tear-stained, sepia-tinged Tom Waits-meets-A Hawk and A Hacksaw loveliness), the revival tent fervour of ‘Sirocco’ or the stately sweep of ‘Flordinese’ - reminiscent of a particularly dazzling example of CSNY-style harmony-laden supergroup produce, distilled down to its basic elements to better let the swooning melodies sparkle - such minor grumbles can easily be overlooked. Fired up by intense outbreaks of barely controlled energy and excitement totally at odds with the usual horizontal feel of standard-issue ‘folky’ fare, ‘Orchard’s an absolute must-hear for anyone keen to discover just how much high voltage acoustic instruments can whip up.

Please help Gigwise target the right advertising to you by filling out this survey. Thanks! :)