New York’s 75 Dollar Bill sounds genuinely new while using absolutely no new technology. Che Chen plays two electric guitars, one of them a twelve-string solid-body with standard frets, the other a hollow-body refretted to allow quarter-tones. This means that an octave allows for twenty-four tones rather than twelve, all sounding in equal temperament, as with the Western scale. Drummer Rick Brown uses mallets to hit the plywood box he sits on, which would make it a cajón in several different cultures, though Brown’s approach is not strictly part of any tradition. The band often expands with viola and horns, and march through the streets with Chen’s portable amp on his hip. I Was Real is like a high-fidelity version of their live show, with the long laments and trances going past ten minutes with the shorter rave-ups slotting themselves in between. Just magical.