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“Bring Your Own Psychedelic Liqueur - The Absynth Quintet certainly isn’t averse to classic bluegrass comparisons, they just want to make it clear their musical range doesn’t stop at the Kentucky border. Mixing it up somewhere along the spectrum of acoustic-improvisational-gypsy-jazz, their sound is plucky and tight à la David Grisman, but adds a dash of Eastern European exoticism that puts you in a smoky, understated hash bar kind of mood. Hailing from Humboldt County, Calif., the band is picking and strumming their way up and down the West Coast, leaving a warm buzz in its wake. The Absynth Quintet’s debut album, Flying Baby Swing, is pleasant and unobtrusive enough to serve as background music for an afternoon potluck, but to relegate them to acoustic “easy listening” status would be a disservice to artists and listeners alike. Tracks like “Playa Requeson” feature mandolin player Chris “Bird” Jowaisas evoking straight-up jazz trumpet with a stringed instrument typically played with lightening-fast percussive fury. The subtle interplay of various harmonic layers is also deserving of a close and contemplative listen; the quintet is so polished that their sound, as one fan put it, can seem like it is coming from one instrument. Lucky they’re coming to a small, string-friendly bar near you where their old and new world qualities can be appreciated over a glass of red wine (they don’t serve absinthe).”
– Eugene Weekly, 10/07
“The Absynth Quintet’s proclivity for weirdness would be tarnished if one were to simply pigeonhole them as connoisseurs of alternative bluegrass. Their music takes the concise, humorous and poignant findings of David Bromberg melded with the catchiness of the Squirrel Nut Zippers, and parlays them into what would happen if NIckel Creek meets Zappa on a field trip in Eastern Europe. You might not get “Orange Blossom Special”, but there is enough Grismanesque picking to keep the traditionalist’s palette unburdened.”
–Good Times, 8/09
“That night, I gorged enjoyably at Tomo, a first-rate sushi restaurant on the ground floor of the Hotel Arcata. Because it was the last evening of the year, it seemed important to have a night on the town. Up the street, at the Arcata Theatre, a gypsy jazz band was getting under way. The band was very good, but the crowd was going in for styles of West Coast whimsy irksome to a peevish East Coaster like myself. People in the throes of air-palming jam-band dances kept revolving in my personal space. Someone dressed in a dark shroud with a spray of foam swimming-pool noodles jutting from the top exhibited his or her liberty from hangups by painfully whacking the noodles into my and everybody’s face. Soon, it was necessary to go.”
-NY Times
“Some bands record amazing studio albums, but can’t recreate the brilliance live. Others are incredible live, but their studio work doesn’t measure up. The Absynth Quintet pulls off both.”
–Indigo Shoes Cd Review in Northcoast Journal, 9/08
“Conjuring the spirit of smoky Parisian bars Django Reinhardt once frequented, Humboldt’s Absynth Quintet trades in an intoxicating distillation of bluegrass, lezmer-tinged gypsy music and hot jazz rags. The five-piece excels at the sort of nimble fretwork that befits the genres, performing with wild, ebullient abandon. After supporting the likes of Vagabond Opera, the David Grisman Quintet, and Hot Buttered Rum, the Absynth Quintet is stepping out on its own with this headlining tour. It’s not a leap to suggest that the five-piece will be a big deal on the West Coast string band circuit in short order.”
–Santa Cruz Metro, 2/09