Pitched somewhere between the chilly post-rock chamber music of
Rachel's and the joyful faux-Gypsy romps of
A Hawk and a Hacksaw, the debut album by instrumental quartet
Gojogo is an uncategorizable delight. The quirky combination of violin, standup bass, tabla, and electronic samples sounds like the work of a bunch of friends with wide-ranging tastes bringing their instruments together just to see what happens, but there's an impressive amount of structure within the songs themselves. As if to showcase a different member per song,
All Is Fair floats through minimalist strings ("Sounds in the Fields," "Dusk"), vaguely Eastern European folk ("Tezeta," the driving, hypnotic "All Is Fair in Love and War"), jazzy solo showcases, and wild group improv. It all fits together beautifully somehow. ~ Stewart Mason