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In 2005, Firewater's Tod A embarked on what would become a three year sabbatical through the Middle East, the Indian Subcontinent and South East Asia. He had recently split with his wife; George W. Bush had just been re-elected; New York, his home for the last 20 years, had become a cold and foreign place. He wasn't even sure he wanted to make music anymore. "I was extremely depressed. The NYC skyline looked like bad wallpaper to me. It was either kill myself or hit the road," he says. He put everything he owned in storage and left NYC with a few clothes and a laptop.

The journey Tod undertook would challenge him creatively in ways he couldn't have imagined in its planning stages. "I traveled overland starting in Delhi, India, across the Thar Desert, then through Rajasthan, onward through the Punjab, and into Pakistan," he recounts. "I had originally planned to continue overland through Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey, ending in Istanbul." But things didn't go exactly as planned. Along the way he was drugged, robbed, detained, and later struck down with severe intestinal problems. Travelers were disappearing along the road to Kabul. As Tod puts it, "I was forced to end my trip at the Khyber Pass on the Afghan border, due to general ill health and the unnerving likelihood of kidnapping."

Recording with a single microphone and a laptop in his pack, he captured performances with a vast array of musicians across India and Pakistan--and eventually Turkey and Israel. Bhangra and sufi percussion would form the basis for the songs he wrote along the way--songs about the world he left behind ("This Is My Life", "Electric City"), politics ("Borneo", "Hey Clown"), and dislocation ("6:45", "Feels like the End of the World"). Tod's acerbic wit shines on The Golden Hour, elucidating both the beauty and the absurdity of the world.

Firewater drummer Tamir Muskat (now also of Balkan Beat Box) produced, mixed and played on the album, along with a strange cast of characters from 5 different countries. Tod tells the story of the trip in a short video, which includes footage from his travels. He also chronicled his experiences on his travel blog, Postcards from the Other Side of the World.

This is an enhanced CD with a short documentary on the making of the CD.

“Firewater is a longtime world-punk favorite…exuberant but profoundly seedy, hard-nosed, and sardonic. The Golden Hour once again perfectly balances the catchy and the cynical.” Rob Harvilla Village Voice

"Comes close to being essential listening. In which a Nick Cave/Tom Waits acolyte travels to Pakistan, hangs out with the locals, and makes Sufi cabaret punk rock music...A superb, disturbing slab of desperation and creativity." Andy Whitman Paste Magazine

"...some seriously exotic magic was created....proving, yet again, that Tod A is one of the most criminally under-appreciated artists in the American underground. The alt-music veteran delivers his finest hour." No Depression

"These cuts chronicle his travelogue with exotically hypnotic grooves, belly-dance melodies and noirish guitar twang. Tour his art of darkness." Winnipeg Sun

"...Firewater’s angriest, most poignant and most accomplished music.” Allmusic.com