Cure-All Records is excited to release Hard-Boiled Music, the debut album by Northern California’s Pocket Quartet. Featuring music inspired by hard-boiled detective fiction of the 1930s-1950s, the album of original compositions musically depicts shady characters, sordid scenes, and pulse-raising action with a rhythmic swagger and tight chamber music-like interplay unique to the band.

Instead of being “noir-ish” or directly relating to musical styles from the time period in which the stories were conceived, the music plays with the unique aesthetic of hard-boiled fiction: the vocabulary, the flawed/dysfunctional hero in first-person perspective, the over-the-top cast of characters, the behaviors of said characters (SO much drinking and flawed behavior), the pulp artwork, etc. From a 21st century perspective, the stories feel heavily stylized like a comic book, and as such, some pieces are character studies ("Benny the Fink", "Flim-Flam Man"), some are situational ("Exit, the Side Door", "The Getaway”, and “Jade Earrings (Chinoiserie)“), some are emotional ("Low Low Low”), some just ridiculous (“Blotto Blues”), and some even reflect on issues of our own time which parallel the past - “Thumb on the Scale (of Justice)” was written out of frustration with our justice system to allow the rich and powerful to escape punishment due.

David Dvorin: guitar
Randy McKean: contra-alto clarinet
Matt Langley: soprano and tenor saxophones
Tim Bulkley: drums and vibraphone

Recorded January, 2025 at Ray Barker Studios, Chico CA by Dann Sargent

Produced by David Dvorin 
Recorded, Mixed and Mastered by David Dvorin 

CD Design by David Dvorin