Pitchfork

Ardent Fevers is the fourth album from the stubbornly indefinable collective Tanakh, and it was recorded after the group's leader Jesse Poe relocated from Virginia to Florence, Italy. This was a move that seems entirely in keeping with the outfit's history-- Tanakh has always exhibited a reluctance to stay affixed in one place. Over the course of their three prior albums, Tanakh's music has drifted serenely across foggy intersections of pan-ethnic folk, improvised drones, and psychedelic pop. Now, perhaps guided in part by homesickness, the group has built upon 2004's Dieu Deuil to craft their most purely song-oriented collection to date (and arguably the most accessible Alien8 release ever) by subtly guiding their sound towards the organic, refracted Americana of acts like Calexico or Pinetop Seven.

In its past incarnations, Tanakh often seemed to be simply comprised of Poe and whatever collaborators happened to be handy, but on Ardent Fevers the musicians have taken on the unmistakable appearance of an actual band. Recorded by Brian Hoffa, who has worked with groups ranging from Labradford to Camper Van Beethoven, and featuring contributions from Isobel Campbell and Alex Neilson, the album is veritably bursting with amplified color and detail. The songs were co-written by Poe and guitarist Umberto Trivella, a partnership that grants the material an enhanced, groove-centered propulsion that is further punctuated by the frequent addition of Muscle Shoals-style horns, dustbowl lap steel, and surprising abundance of hypercharged, Crazy Horse guitar soloing.

With its thoughtful construction and heavy emphasis on Poe's dusky vocals, Ardent Fevers might seem unrecognizable to listeners only familiar with the grainy, abstract textures of 2004's self-titled double album. The differences should be apparent right from the opening notes of "Drink to Sher", which masterfully combines front-porch guitars and jazzy horns, or on the soulful, brassy "Deeper", which rides an elegant swell of Blonde on Blonde organ. In the past, Tanakh's use of violin and strings could often lend the music a certain Eastern European gypsy flourish, but here, on such tracks as "Like I Used To", they also help provide a distinctly C&W atmosphere, issuing a quiet floorboard creak beneath Poe's dusty boots.

Elsewhere, on tracks like the delicate "Restless Hands" or the brooding "Winter Song", Tanakh return to the more familiar waters of Fairport-style UK folk-rock, directed by Poe's sweet melodies and unerring sense for the understated narrative. And so it also appears on the rainswept, Leonard Cohen climes of "Still Trying To Find You Home", before Poe and Trivella unveil a blistering, wholly unforeseen dual guitar jam. This process is later repeated on the set-closing "Take and Read", and though these are the exact sort of solos that Neil Young should just have gone ahead and patented 25 years ago, there's no denying that their sudden appearance provides the album with a crucial, throat-scorching jolt of undiluted cactus juice.

As with Tanakh's previous releases, there is a sense of loss or dislocation that hovers mirage-like around the edges here, as though the whole mysterious enterprise might vanish in a cloud of smoke if addressed too directly. Intoxicating though it is, Ardent Fevers leaves the listener with little concise idea about what exactly constitutes Tanakh's true sound or which direction they might travel next, but this vague disorientation shouldn't be enough to discourage repeat investigations into the matter.