a Tale of 10 Bells

Artist: Dark Matter Halos
Year: 2008

Notes: “a Tale of 10 Bells is a striking synthesis of staid antiquity and chaotic futurism; an idiot-savant child of These Immortal Souls and the Folk Implosion careening through life and taking notice of its surroundings.

Todd Cravens and Susan Morris are both good singers in their own right, but when they sing together, it's beautiful, strange, magical.

Lyrics that are both earthy and oblique, arrangements that are always goldilocks - never too hot, never too cold; neither bland nor gaudy - coming to a crescendo whenever compelled by the driving emotional force of the song.

Jeff Lee is a drummer who knows the spaces between the hits are just as important as the hits themselves, punctuating a throbbing, dark undercurrent from bassist Sarah Cravens that propels each of the 10 tracks to exactly the right velocity, creating line art to be colored in with angelic keys and devil guitars.

In short, this is the shit, man."

Produced by Matt Sommers at mediumFUSION and released on September 11, 2008.

Cover art by Jeff Weissenberger

Lettering by Todd Kennedy