Tunng are an experimental folktronica band from London town and have been around for a couple of years and perhaps the best way to describe them is the way they do it themselves however I'll put a warning preceding this, take with a pinch of salt. Bands are forever talking in the third person about how great they are, written with a thesaurus resting by the keyboard but this is quite good without being too egotistical: "tunng play a mesmerising mix of folky acoustics and busy electronica, overlaying electronic crackles, gorgeous harmonies, bewitching mantras and synthetic beats that are reminiscent of early Beta Band, 'The Wicker Man' soundtrack and Four Tet. The concluding sentence about Four Tet is certainly true and probably a large influence and a good pigeonhole label for this band.
They do a lovely cover of "The Pioneers" by Bloc Party, making it their own sound, which is what covers are meant to do, it's funny how so many people fail on this respect. However my favourite song by them, and likely their most famous and well-listened track is "Bullets". A brilliant, laid-back, coming-home-and-too-mashed-to-go-to-bed-song. Despite a slightly annoying and dodgy beginning, that has a sound akin to some sort of bogey monster from your childhood's nightmare's having a laughing fit in a tongue you can't understand. After the monster's finished chuckling the song takes flight majestically into the horizon, only slightly blemished by the monster's return in the middle eight. That aside, you'll love "Bullets", even if you don't frequent mangy drinking dens that flout the smoking ban with more than just the usual plain old cigarettes. Tunng are touring all over the place from Australia to Paris, so I'll have to wait a while before i get to see them live.
Menomena are a U.S. outfit who, and before you turn your nose up at their nationality, are glorious, BUT, a little bit spasmodic. They are great in flashes, and when they are great they are truly great some of their stuff possesses a ghostly quality and other times I listen and all I can do is cry like a child and ask how and why they produced something so poor. But I'll just talk about their amazing stuff like "Wet and Rusting". This one of the songs that reeled me around the fountain, then away from the fountain and landed me back in current times, in spite of my struggles to try and remain firmly rooted in Manchester in the 1980's, and the decade in general. The song builds and builds up and the warbling sounds of their Korg, conjure up an image of water and for me, a damn beginning to break, rust even. Music always produces images in my mind, it can be a really joyous feeling or a real soul-breaking experience. Anyway, another song of theirs I recommend would be "Air Aid", but steer well clear "Evil Bee", but then again each to their own. There is also a really nice acoustic version of "Wet and Rusting", but I am sucker for having four million different versions of the same song.
Wet And Rusting - Menomena
Speaking of Menomena, I was doing one of my favourite pastimes, internet and specifically myspace whoring. This does not mean spamming people with pictures of my nearly naked self, but rather trawling and finding out information about all the the persons that people all the friendship circles and such and this can apply to bands too. Though people are more fun, it's almost like having your very own soap that you can watch unfold, though some times things happen out of the blue and you can't understand them but there's nothing you can do. Anyway at the risk of sounding like a demented voyeur, with no life, the latter might be true but i reject the former, I better stop. So, my point is this band Animals Talking, were likened by someone to Menomena and this what brought them in to my mind, no other reason at all. Animals Talking are yet another four yoots from North London hoping to follow in the footsteps of their dimly illustrious forefathers Les Incompetents. Though the comparisons stop at some members both going to the same school. Animals Talking display a purpose about them and from their home demos, though everyone telling them they are not-the-best recorded, their seems to be a rusty diamond coming through, only time will tell. Anyway give them a listen see what ya think, and come down to their gigs next month and say hello to me, you never know I might even be on stage with them. The nice fellows have all their demos available to download on their myspace so go there to put them on your iPod. Oh and they're a secretive sort so I couldn't get their mugshots on here, sorry.
I hope that this will fill a little space in your procrastination time on the internet and bring a slight up-turn at the corner of your mouth, lord knows I need it.
enjoy.
x
