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After the occasional chaos of their first album, live gigging gave Bellowhead a chance to tighten their game. On their sophomore effort, 2009's Matachin, they conjure up a variety of material and arrangements that play to their instrumental and vocal strengths. For the most part, the music is still traditional, but in many ways you'd hardly know it, since stylistically it pretty much falls out of time: sometimes a touch of dark cabaret and sometimes like a New Orleans brass band lurching madly. Jon Boden's voice commands attention, particularly on the creepy "Widow's Curse." There's plenty of fire between the musicians, and although the arrangements can be quite complex, they gobble them up with glee. ~ Chris Nickson