Beo String Quartet
Ghosts Revisited
(Neukraft Records)

From classical masterpieces, contemporary pieces, and original progressive rock, the full range of Pittsburgh’s Beo String Quartet is impossible to label. Which is a very good thing, as far as I’m concerned.

On the band’s new Ghosts Revisited, we get the string players presenting a near dozen under a broad concept, featuring their unique interplay. From the layered opening of “Prologue,” to the weird off-beat plunk, heavy bass, and jutting string scratches of the mess (a very good mess) under the Zappa-like vocal on the scary “Dreaming” to the low bowing attacking the sweeter higher melody of the first Ghost tune, there is so much to love here.

At about halfway, we get the percussion of plucked strings on “Dancing” into a high-end attack of the quartet, allowing the weird wavery vocal to have its moment. I really like this one, the high drama, desperate interplay of different voices, the urgency of the strings in the mix. And again, some truly sly drumming. Things almost get hopeful here in the melody.

Drums and plucked guitar inform the truly odd “introSpectre.” The strings rise in their way but subside when the bass, vocal, and drums move the verses along, showing how perfect Beo String Quartet is with their production.

It’s just strings to end as we began on “Epilogue.” This one truly shows off what this four-piece are capable of, as much keeping to the tremor of Ghost Revisited as carving a singular path of bowing, cutting, and layering this band manages so well.