Muruch

White Hinterland is the new band fronted by singer-songwriter Casey Dienel. Their debut album Phylactery Factory will be released on March 4th by Dead Ocean Records, a sister label to Secretly Canadian. Casey’s lovely voice and creatively quaint arrangements are still very present, but the new disc has a smoother, sometimes darker tone than her charmingly organic 2006 solo release Wind Up Canary. Phylactery Factory includes guest vocals by Dienel’s former Hush Records labelmate Laura Gibson.

There’s a melancholy in the simmering jazz of “The Destruction of the Art Deco House”, with Casey’s voice taking on a intermittent falsetto reminiscent of Feist’s debut. The jaunty verses of “Dreaming of the Plum Trees” sound more like Casey’s first album, but the multi-tracked vocals and cacophonic mix of guitar and piano in the chorus is something else entirely.

“Calliope” slips down into pretty, quiet melody accented with a deep string arrangement. The moody beauty of the song’s first half recalls Joni Mitchell’s “River” or “Winter” by Tori Amos, while the second portion crests in a wave of piano and voice then ebbs away softly.

“Hometown Hooray” balances between a breezy liveliness and melodic serenity, then the polyphonic “Lindberghs + Metal Birds” picks up the pace as a retro 70s rock bass line mingles with the orchestral pop piano.

The stand out track “Napolean At Waterloo” is the prettiest song of war I’ve ever heard, rising from ballad to rhythmic crescendo. The simple piano ballad “Hung on a Thin Thread” at first seems to revisit the Joni Mitchell sound, but is flavored and fortified by soft horns. And the wonderful Laura Gibson joins Casey for a duet on the haunting ukulele and horn finale “Vessels”.

White Hinterland – Dreaming of the Plum Trees (mp3)

White Hinterland Official Site
Casey on MySpace

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