If you've ever heard any of those exceedingly disturbing "family" recordings from the late twenties/early thirties -- the kind you could cut on cheap wax for two-cents on the promenade -- you've already got a good bead on avant-folk duo CocoRosie. Two sisters reunited by the splendor of the city of lights, Bianca and Sierra Casady recorded Le Maison de Mon Reve in a cramped apartment, tucked away from the hustle and bustle of the 18th district -- a fitting tribute to cabin fever in all its various guises.

Simply telling you that CocoRosie play a charmingly arcane brand of twinkle folk doesn't really articulate the spectral eccentricity of these pre-war (as in Civil) odes to love, life and seclusion. "By Your Side"'s eerie, crackling backing track sounds like a Memphis soul LP played at 78rpm, while "Butterscotch" and "Jesus Loves Me" are both deliciously Appalachian-flavored, an odd byproduct of too-much-spare time and French wine. In the best possible way, Le Maison de Mon Reve recalls the legendary Shaggs LP Philosophy of the World; both were fashioned by occasionally-at-odds siblings, display painfully sweet songwriting chops, and exhibit an absolute disregard for anything even closely resembling modern recording techniques.