Its certainly not an album of twee indie folk - though this area raises its head in the lyrics to “Another Heart Bites The Dust”; which is a dark, fairytale-like story of a “poor but youthful lad, who loved a girl with all he had”. Its rather a very eclectic album, with lots of different tones and structures; populated by unusual elements like electronics, textural percussion and wind instruments. Often these wind parts provide the skeleton of the songs, with the guitar as an embellishment: Broken.Heart.Collector are far from a guitar band. There is a definite trace of the cabaret tradition in their sound; a hearkening back to pre-rock/pop (as we know them) forms and notions. Though this shouldn’t be interpreted as indicating a smoothness or detached theatricality: “Get The Dog” has a thunderous bass clarinet groove that any gypsy wedding band would die for -  not so much “pumping”, as “pounding”. “Wolves” builds on a disco beat to the poppiest moment of the album, before launching into a noisy prog-disco swagger. The start of “Eisenwalzer” has all the “sturm and drang” of Einsturzende Neubauten, before turning to more Metal-lic structures for the chorus; the song fading out to a lone glockenspiel. The album carries a wide range of tones and moods, without ever deviating from the band’s “sound” - not the easiest of things to achieve; so, in comparison to “Get The Dog” and “Eisenwalzer”, “Boatwischmusik” is a pondering, quiet, unhurried track. It reminds me of an avant-Tindersticks, if such a thing should exist… “Eckig” combines these extremes of tone in one song, with languid, hymnal, wind/vocal drones over clattering, manic percussion. Scattered amongst the songs are also a few instrumentals; these range from moody improvisations, to more overtly “Improv” explorations and energetic, rhythmic dances.

Broken.Heart.Collector have created an album, here, of great colour, breadth and depth. It covers a lot of ground, without wandering into any territory beyond its powers; and draws its sounds from a wide palette of instrumentation. These instruments are all given quite equal weighting, so that none truly dominate; but it is the wind work that shines most brightly to me. These parts often have the rhythmic power of a brass section, and kick up quite a storm. The musicianship is of a high quality throughout, and the vocals, from Maja Osojnik, are strong enough; though they rarely break into a sweat. There is a great attention to detail, with lots of little touches  that show an intelligent, creative approach to the studio - for instance, the buried, whispered vocal that shadows the main vocal part in “Wolves”. As mentioned earlier, there is a leaning towards the cabaret tradition in the songs, as well as a general “Eastern European” feel - which I imagine is due, in part, to the prominent wind instrumentation. (Broken.Heart.Collector hail from Vienna, and the evidence suggests Osojnik is Slovenian, but I can’t confirm this…) This is tempered with clear nods to the influence of noise rock, industrial music and dance-floor concerns - but never with any sense of novelty or dilettantism. Abrasive, jazzy, clever and groovy; with a rich, fascinating wealth of sounds: a very solid album indeed.