New Lord Buffalo album Holus Bolus takes its name from an antiquated phrase meaning all at once. It materializes instantly from the first opening notes, a grey haze drawing listeners in with deft juxtapositions of droning violin, guitars, drums and vocals. While the quartet wades into the same murky waters as dark emotive brethren David Eugene Edwards/Woven Hand, All Them Witches, Emma Ruth Rundle, Earth/Dylan Carlson, Chelsea Wolfe and Nick Cave, the creative interplay of Middle Eastern influences and Western folk Americana takes the record in its own enveloping, meditative direction. Embarking on a sleep-deprived road trance through High Plains iconography, Holus Bolus is bleak yet hopeful, a mix that is by now Lord Buffalo's established custom blend.
