Di Dollari – Di Dollari – Mutant Music
Reviewed by Peter 5-8-2005

Instrumental album of western (as in the film genre) rock featuring twangy guitars (including a baritone guitar), harmonica, accordion and percussion. Very straight-forward, doesn’t vary widely from the sound established at the beginning of the album, except for #13, which is much more experimental. Beginning of the album starts with a bluesier feel and gets twangier and more western as the album progresses. Guitars usually dominate and harp and accordion are tantalizingly buried – they’re there, but you have to listen for them. I starred tracks that I enjoyed, but nothing stood out as a bad track – the range was from pleasant music that slipped into the background to engaging, emotive or amusing.

No lyrics, no FCCs.
1. * 4:14 – Mid/Up-tempo, up-beat jam mostly strummed guitars with cool, subtle harmonica effects in background.
2. * 6:21 – Mid/Up-tempo. Down-beat, contemplative lead guitar over energetic background of up-beat percussion and harp.
3. 5:52 – Down-tempo, darker and less melodic, but with triumphant crescendos as well. Accordion used like harp, especially later on, as supporting background.
4. * 1:37 – Mid-tempo, short but w/ a variety of sounds: some minor, melodic, heroic, what sound like horns. Interesting blend.
5. * 4:45 – Mid-tempo, soft and slow. Starts with 40s bass intro over nighttime woods noises. Simple guitar and harp. Guitars become upbeat for last min.
6. * 5:24 – Mid-tempo, almost up-beat with cool twangy western guitar riffs and accordion. Ends with quiet 5s quote from a western “dead or alive”
7. * 4:46 – Mid-tempo, starts with emotive harp and harp part is more interesting throughout, but still largely covered over by the twangy guitars and shuffling percussion.
8. * 1:08 – Up-tempo/beat, very western guitar piece.
9. 3:01 – Mid/up-tempo with slurry (in a good way) harp that actually doesn’t feel drowned-out.
10. 4:14 – Mid-tempo, down-beat, starts with short, slow percussion solo. Sparse guitars and typical understated, quality harp-work in background.
11. 2:34 – Down-tempo, sparse, everything light: guitars, accordion, harp and percussion.
12. 4:37 - Mid-tempo, down-beat contemplative, sparse western that gets more upbeat and filled-in during the second half.
13. 6:06 – Most (only?) experimental track on the album. Prog-western-rock? Early Pink Floyd sound through spacey ambient soundscape filled with sparse guitar and noise elements, twittering birds, etc. Last 10s – movie sample about crossing over
14. 2:23 – Mid-tempo, driving, strongly western guitars and soaring harp. Hints of whistle in background add to the western feel.