Punch

I'll confine my comments to the Blind Leaving the Blind, clearly the focal point of this disc. This is Chris Thile's most ambitious work to date. Sprawling over 40 minutes and four movements, it's a string quintet surrounding a series of brief songs that sketch Thile's feeling of loss following his own break-up and divorce. Perhaps not the most enobling material, but the music! My goodness, there are dozens of melodic themes, variations clear and obscured, musical ideas that come flying too fast to process fully, leaving you swooning and high.

Maybe this isn't for everyone, it's not always sweet -- there's some vinegary dissonance -- but the melodic variety is so rich, it's a simply brilliant composition. Thile never uses the annoying habits of phrase repetition that mar some other ventures into classical bluegrass. Here the development is rapid, complex, coloristic, and demanding.

For me the emotional climax of the four movements is the end of the third. Perhaps this is darkest midnight. Gabe Witcher's fiddle plays a weird nightmarish take on the blues, dissonant and almost schizophrenic. Then the full ensemble playing comes in with a hard rock lick, brilliant in it's gut-busting force.

It's interesting that this work premiered at Carnegie Hall, but lately Punch Brothers have been touring small venues, many in small towns. This is brilliant, complex music suited for a concert hall rather than a bar room. I can't wait to see their next work.

Breathing life into the acoustic landscape, Chris Thile shows his compositional talent through a collaboration of fine musicians that are climbing towards the top of their game. Gabe Witcher's violin is an equivalent and bold partner to Thile's mandolin. Noam "Pickles" Pikelny's banjo is beyond professional and may be the heartbeat of this new sound. Chris "Critter" Eldrige has a steady and understated hand on the guitar, a favorite in his genuiness and press for accuracy. Greg Garrison's bass adds it's solo voice as well (though recently replaced by equally competent youngster, Paul Cowan).

Clearly, the four-part suite "The Blind Leaving the Blind" is unlike anything this reviewer has ever heard and explores new trails. Though dancing with an atonality at times, that might leave the less adventurous behind, the music never drifts into confusion and remains satisfying. The autobiographical lyrics along with pinnacles and perigees of contrasting music, communicate at a visceral level. With the competence to embrace the minimalism of the single note then to fly into harmonized tapestry, this quintet is making history. The only thing better than probing the depths of this CD is seeing them live. They believe in what they are doing. So do I.

This is a relatively awful piece of work. The band mostly plays discordant, nonmelodic music that can possibly only be enjoyed by the sophisticated listeners who like avant garde classical music (i.e., not me). Worst of all is the half-hour, four part monstrosity titled "The Blind Leading the Blind." Chris Thile composed it, and he sings sweetly, but his vocals usually seem to have nothing to do with the backing music. It would be as if you sang "Amazing Grace" while a band played "Devil Went Down To Georgia" at the same time. Even within the instrumental passages, the banjo, fiddle and other instruments are often working against eachother rather than playing together. I admire people who can get anything out of this collection of loosely strung together bits and bops. My reaction was more like the way a Jackson Pollock painting strikes me. Sorry, not my cup o' tea.

Copied from here: http://moultano.blogspot.com/2008/03/best-album-ive-heard-in-years.html

"Punch" is the second album from the newly renamed "Punch Brothers," their first being "How To Grow a Woman From the Ground." It's unclassifiable music, which clearly springs from bluegrass but with influences too numerous to count. It mixes the idioms and instruments of bluegrass with the complex harmonies of contemporary classical and jazz. I guarantee you've never heard anything like it. It makes Bela Fleck sound tame and traditional. Chris Thile, the frontman for the group has been called "the most virtuosic American ever to play the mandolin," and the other members of the group receive less effusive praise only because their instruments are more common. Here they are put to good use playing things that have never before been played on these instruments.

The meat of the album is contained in a bewildering, four movement, forty minute piece entitled "The Blind Leaving the Blind." Despite the length and the stretches of dissonance, it's never inaccessible for long; the lyrics and melodies stay rooted in telling the emotional story of Chris's recent divorce. Every so often they break into an old-fashioned bluegrass jam, but then change keys in a few measures to remind you what you are listening to. On my first pass through it was exhausting to listen to, and it was a stretch for the band as well.

"For me, when I first received the score and saw what Chris was asking me to play on my instrument, that had to have been just as traumatic as him getting his divorce papers," Pikelny says. "He figured, 'Hey, if you have the notes there, you'll figure out a way to play it.'"

Chris Thile's voice, though adequate, doesn't match the quality of the playing and composition, and the album suffers from what I call "Great Album Syndrome." (Every truly great album must have one unbearable song, i.e. "The Crunge" or "Fitter Happier." On this album it's the first track, "Punch Bowl.") However, if hearing a banjo in a song doesn't immediately turn you off, (I understand that excludes a fair number of people) then give this a listen.

I am attracted to artists who cross musical genres and create a unique sound. Bluegrass meets classical meets folk meets blues. The Punch Brothers forge ahead into new musical territory with the same fearlessness as supreme artists Bela Fleck and Edgar Meyer. Chris Thile's 4 part piece "The Blind Leaving the Blind" is spellbinding and beautifully lush with complex themes. Chris has brought together a group of fabulous musicians who can match his high level of precision performance and artistry. Punch is a groundbreaking piece of work. The entire CD presents a cohesive landscape of ideas and feelings that delights from beginning to end.