It seems that virtually every record that we get from New York in the Halo-17 offices these days is an art-punk act of some sort. From The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and their like, down to rip-offs of The Strokes and The White Stripes, pretty much everything that we hear coming out of the place is jagged, simple, and loud. Not that that is a particularly huge problem, since some of those same records happen to be rather good, but when it comes to musical variety, New York is not a place that comes to mind at the moment.

So, when this self-titled release by Barbez fell into my hands, I thought that finally I was going to hear something from New York that didn't feature lots of fast, short songs infused with punk energy. After all, this band features instruments like the accordion and marimba, and unlike some rock bands that use unusual instruments like that, they're not used as a gimmick to liven up a couple of average songs. Barbez use these instruments in every song, along with the more traditional guitar and percussion sounds, to create a sound that sounds like a bunch of Polish peasants in the 19th century getting together and playing at... well, a punk show.

Despite the old-fashioned instruments, and traditional song structures, Barbez are still a punk band. An artistically literate punk band with some fresh new ideas, to be sure, but still a punk band. While they describe themselves as "post-cabaret", their songs are infused with an aggressive energy, which in practice means that most of their songs end in squalls of chaotic noise. What's nice is that this chaotic, anarchistic edge is tempered by a strong sense of melodicism, while there is generous use of feedback and other noise, there is always a melody hidden beneath it all, which is driving things along.

There are some pretty serious flaws with this recording though, and they're pretty much intrinsic to what the band is trying to do. The first major problem is that the band occasionally sound too arty and sophisticated for their own good. It's obvious that they think that they're doing something that's both new and important, but their execution of the idea, while still quite good, isn't anywhere near good enough to justify such an attitude. The other problem is in the bizarre genre-straddling form of the music. While fans of post-rock, art-punk, and related genres will probably be quite comfortable with this, it's a little too classical for mainstream rock listeners, and a little too modern for mainstream classical listeners.

"Barbez" is certainly an interesting concept, and the execution is quite good, but I feel that while the idea is novel, it's not one that leaves the band a lot of room to manoeuvre in, and it's not one that lends itself to long-term repeated listening. Still, for those who like their music original, different, and just slightly pompous, this certainly fits the bill.