Abner Trio is composed of some of the most formidable talent in the geographical region, and its sound is a surprising recombinant mutation of their respective abilities. Which is to say, it's like nothing any of them have done before. It's more like something they're doing NOW. The Indianapolis based group is comprised of Clinton Hughey, the melodic-indiedream-rock guitarist of Manners For Husbands, Karl Hofstetter, the deafening and horrifying drummer of Melk the G6-49, and scarecrow-skinny old-testament prophet Daniel Paquette on bass. 

 

Hughey's hypnopompic melodies, Paquette's clairvoyant lyrics, and Hofstetter's idiot-savant drumming all add up to grind-folk/sleep-soaked/mystic-schizophrenic-post-monastic-trance-rock album of the year. Paquette's lyrics have a childish intelligence, a juvenile sensitivity to the perilous exigencies of the human conditions. And they're also very fun-fun and happy-happy. The drums follow an unconscious geometry squeezed into a hopscotch sidewalk-chalk pattern of time-signatures and scene-changes. The guitar sounds like a Situationist analysis of po'white-trash/hobo-chic. 

 

The whole album is kind of a hybrid wedding of down-home bluesy strumming, and hyper-conceptual French postmodernism. This will all make sense when you hear it, we promise.