It has been almost five years since Toronto based Jewish/European folk band Beyond the Pale put out material, but the wait has been well worth it.  On their third full length release  Postcards this group has once again continued to meld traditional Eastern European styles with some Western influences, giving their music the appeal of contemporary Jewish/European folk while still offering some experimental flair to those looking for something a little more modern.  And thanks to their ability to always make their material sound unique, Beyond the Pale continues to be a group that stands out.

I like a lot of the artists that compose music of this type, especially more of the contemporary ones but admittedly their material all ends up sounding relatively similar.  Beyond the Pale doesn’t suffer from this problem though, and this is one of the main reasons that they have a bit of an edge over other modern day groups playing older, established styles.  The instrumentalists in this group are always experimenting with different tempos and tones which keeps all of the material on Postcards fresh and interesting.  There are plenty of happy sounding upbeat tracks, but there are also some very intriguing slower paced songs that also add a female vocalist into the mix.  This band also likes to add some slightly jazzier sounding ideas in with some of their traditional folk compositions, making them sound more like a modern act than one that is simply making an homage to the past. 

It has been a long time in the making, but Postcards seems to have benefited from that as it offers listeners sixteen tracks that all sound different from one another.  This is the type of folk music that any age should be able to appreciate, as it has enough contemporary elements to give some older listeners a sense of nostalgia and enough modern touches to attract those who haven’t necessarily listened to this style of music before.  And seeing as it is relatively rare these days to find a group playing this type of music that could achieve this type of universal appeal, it makes Beyond the Pale that much more impressive.