Punch Brothers slam fixation with gadgets

Punch Brothers' latest album, The Phosphorescent Blues, gets its message across with a vinyl release in the US.

Punch Brothers' latest album, The Phosphorescent Blues, is a beautiful meeting point of sounds. The intricacies of the instrumentation and soaring harmonies of the 10-minute-plus opener Familiarity, their exquisite Claude Debussy arrangement Passepied, the boldness of My Oh My and the joy of Magnet loosens the band's bluegrass shackles and places them firmly in the realm of mad and wonderful musical science.

The album demands your full attention. The lyrical theme that runs throughout is modern technology and our ever-increasing struggle to put down our gadgets long enough to fully absorb a 50-odd minute collection of songs, such as this.

"We were drinking scotch and hanging out. The theme kind of emerged from a conversation we were having about technology and the way that we were relating to one another; the way that humans are relating to each other in the age of iPhones and electronic media," explains the band's guitarist, Chris Eldridge.

"It's very real. We are relating to each other differently than before. Without trying to sound preachy, a lot of the record was stuff we were all thinking about."

There was also the discussion as to whether the American five-piece even needed to release full-length albums."It was something we thought about, and agonised about, because you don't need an album any more. People don't consume music that way any more.

"It was a funny thing, but we decided we felt strongly that we wanted to make an album with an arc to it, something that held it together," says Eldridge.

For those listeners taking in the message that underpins The Phosphorescent Blues, it was also released in the US on vinyl.

And as any proud vinyl advocate will tell you, skipping the needle across tracks, as you might fast-forward a CD or a digital player, is a big no-no. "Vinyl is great. You have 23 minutes max on one side.

"And you have to take some initiative to get up and flip it over. It's a beautiful ritual," he says.

And there's a bonus for those buying vinyl.

"We put a few extra songs on the vinyl. There were three sides of the album, so we had the extra room with the fourth side and we tossed on a few songs that didn't make the cut.

"And they didn't make the cut because they weren't good enough, they just didn't fit the narrative or the arc of something you can sit down and listen to for 50 minutes.

"I'm happy that some of these other songs we like are going to be heard," Eldridge says.

The Phosphorescent Blues is out now.