Album Review: The Hard Quartet by The Hard Quartet

When it comes to indie/Americana supergroup The Hard Quartet, that dictum doesn't hold so much as a drop of water. This debut LP was undoubtedly, aurally, a blast to make, and it's no less a blast to listen to. That's perhaps unsurprising when you have alternative music royalty in every corner. The headline act is former Pavement honcho Stephen Malkmus, who has been uncharacteristically unprolific on the recorded music front these past few years.

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Does such a thing as a truly equal collaboration, with no appointed or self-appointed leader, exist in the world of music? It feels like The Hard Quartet might be on to something in this regard, they could be as close to the ideal as it's possible to get. A mesmerising full-length, it's an achievement that comes warranted. Their self-titled debut represents a stripped back, seamless concoction of rock, blues, folk and slacker harmony, fulfilling guitar licks and solos, drum beats that are just right and personalised vocal instrumentation.

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Back in August, the announcement of this new supergroup raised a fair few eyebrows. The lineup is not one you would logically put together; Stephen Malkmus, indie rock poster boy, playing alongside Matt Sweeney, who's shared stages with Iggy Pop and Andrew W.K.? Add to the mix Emmett Kelly, a folk guitar experimentalist perhaps best known for his work with Ty Segall, and Jim White, drummer with Dirty Three, and you've got a strange brew in the making. No wonder, then, their debut full-length as The Hard Quartet is such an unpredictable ride.

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