Longtime Hood member Gareth Brown’s first solo effort under his own name is an intriguing affair, in that there are few overt connections between Iron Henry’s formal, classical instrument-inspired efforts and the restrained power of Hood’s experimental indie rock. Perhaps the closest parallel is one of understatement rather than splashiness — the all-instrumental Iron Henry, recorded solely by Brown on his computer (an approach suggestive of In the Nursery’s elegant work, though little otherwise connects the musicians), feels like a series of calm introductions to art films or pieces featured at a chamber music festival, sometimes lively but almost always suffused with a preternatural calm. “Worms” shows this blend to the best effect, a merry, multi-percussive core that is slowly but surely added to via a sweeping, quite beautiful string part — almost as if a 1930s cartoon evolved into the Ring Cycle. Comparisons to minimalist composers and performers are inevitable and understandable, if only because there’s a similar tension between received notions of what classical music “should” sound like and the experimentation with rhythm and clipped, cyclical melodies here, even on the slower pieces such as “2nd Cabinet: Frozen Charlottes.” A song like “The Turbulent Syrup of Ambition” adds hints of wordless vocals, gently swooping in and out of the arrangement, further fleshing out the arrangement without removing its core pattern. Meanwhile, not everything is simply classical arrangements recreated — the low hum/drone throughout “On Lake Above Thee” builds into an entrancing wash of textures, with a quick, nervous rhythm gently skidding through it. – Ned Raggett
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