How does one sculpt intense music with minimal percussion and no electrical outputs? Local quartet Dark Dark Dark has the answer: mood, mood, mood. Despite employing little more than accordion, strings, banjo, and voice, The Snow Magic still manages to swell with dramatic tension, its streamlined sound marching confidently forward. Oh and what the hell, a little drumming here and there from local superstar Martin Dosh certainly won't hurt any album.

Even as the rollicking saloon jam “Ashes” launches the listener into the record, Dosh keeps his presence graceful with just a dash of frenzy, always ceding the spotlight to the band's rustic interweaving melodies. The ghostly harmonizing groans on “A Cloud Story” provide just one example of Dark Dark Dark’s unique blend of old world suspense and intricate aural trickery, and surely due credit goes to their producer – Minneapolis music scene veteran Rob Skoro, whose own records have always sparkled among the crowded local singer-songwriter field. Skoro’s mixing board prowess is readily evident when the vocalists  burst out in front of the music with the memorable line, “there's no ocean in Minneapolis!” on the rousing “Colors” and when the accordion keys can be heard ever so slightly tapping along with the exhaled notes on the stately closer “All the Things.”

A band equal parts haunted hay ride and Beirut, Dark Dark Dark is more than just bells, whistles, and expertly blended vocal patterns, it all comes back to their nagging emphasis on mood. To help capture the stark intimacy they were going for Dark Dark Dark eschewed working in a traditional studio setting, opting instead to make the album, as their website phrases it, “in a cozy Minneapolis house.” Dark Dark Dark’s decision to home record paid off in spades, lending a candlelit basement sleepover vibe to the chorus of “Junk Bones.” Elsewhere the quiet and bright pizzicato in “Trouble No More” evokes a lonely attic window as the morning sun creeps in.

Ruminations on ghosts, winter, and graveyards may run throughout The Snow Magic’s lyrics, but Dark Dark Dark’s black mood still sounds pleasant and friendly. A few years ago Spaghetti Western String Co. excited local music fans by putting their own modern spin on organic antiquated sounds and Dark Dark Dark seems poised to following in their footsteps. Thanks to the fresh perspectives of the talent working both in front of and behind the record button The Snow Magic makes the old sound invitingly new.