Graceful Minimalism

Aside from pigeonholes, the band’s sound shares more with experimental film than any specific musical movement. There is a graceful minimalism to their atmospheres with instruments expertly weaving in and out of the sonic tapestry to create a warm otherworldliness that we don’t hear nearly enough. Davis’ hushed and smoothly clipped vocal delivery and smoky, upright bass lines are reminiscent of some long-lost jazz record. Fans of Portishead will hear hints of Dummy except that with Bela Karoli, classical instruments, as much as electronic percussion, provide much of the drive in their finely-paced melodies.

If Americana tends to focus on traditional sounds, Bela Karoli reworks those aesthetics and incorporate languidly ambient noises and sultry atmospheres. These electronic treatments, as well as the spray can sound on “Metal Body,” are what ensure that no one will confuse this band for a jazz lounge tribute act.

Mood and Nuance

Instead, they are essentially an experimental indie band who are clearly familiar with the idiom of jazz but utilize it more subversively and subtly. This is heard most clearly on “Machine” and its sense of receiving the music of the spheres through a glass darkly and on the epic album closer, “Margin” with its hypnotic, low end and sense of walking-along-a-seashore on a moonless, starless night.

With production that allows for the many shades of mood and nuance at Bela Karoli’s disposal, Furnished Rooms is accomplished in a way that can be missed at first but becomes obvious after repeated listens.