A hallucinatory double exposure of medieval English folk and 19th century Americana, 2003’s The Civil War is a guerilla assault on rock, folk, and country maneuvers, keeping lines of communication open across genres and periods.

Balancing baroquely detailed production against passages of stark single-instrument simplicity, with The Civil War, Matmos pushed themselves in an unexpected, and surprisingly tuneful, new direction. Part Canterbury Tale and part Southern Gothic, The Civil War eludes easy categories but rewards careful listening, responding to present tensions with historical imagination and sly wit.