holaTUBE: The Last Bison - "Midnight City" (m83 cover) [indie folk / chamber music]

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With roots in Chesapeake, VA, the 7-piece "mountain-top chamber music" family band The Last Bison has just released their "debut" album Inheritance, which is gaining the critical appeal and audience they probably hoped last year's self-released Quill LP would have acquired when they were simply known as "Bison". However, after the name change they decided to rerecord (and reorder) the six strongest tracks from Quill and add five new tracks. The result is a more polished and cohesive indie folk album that is reaching many more sets of ears with the help of Republic Records and Paste Magazine and thanks to critics' comparisons to The Decemberists, Fleet Foxes, and Mumford & Sons.
In this video, shared exclusively with Paste, you can experience The Last Bison's live take on "Midnight City" by m83, in which the Virginian folk ensemble uses instruments of all sorts to completely re-imagine the hit electronic song. With Ben Hardesty's raspy howl and rhythm guitar, his father Dan's lead banjo picking, his sister Annah's chiming bells, a brooding percussion, cello and pump organ combo, and a flawless violin impressively replacing m83's synth leads you have a complex and truly unique cover song that can just about live up to the original.

Listen to the original recording of their single "Switzerland" from the self-released Quill below and buy their new debut Inheritance LP here.