Tanakh - Villa Claustrophobia
(Alien 8)
Tanakh is the brainchild of Arlington, VA's Jesse W. Poe, though for this album, he enlisted a slew of friends to help. Among the 11 guest musicians are Mick
Turner and Jessica Billey (who together are Bonnevil, and Mick is also in The Dirty Three), Ned Oldham (Palace, Anomoanon), and David Lowery (Camper Van Beethoven, Cracker). And, for just under an hour on Tanakh's debut, Villa Claustrophobia, the music swells, hypnotizes, and drones its way between dark Middle Eastern ragas and languid folk.
The album's flow is seamless. The music is constantly shifting, but maintains such a consistent tone that the 11 tracks feel more like 5. There is no break in the music between tracks 3 and 6, with songs coming out of segues from the last song, with a track mark stuck in between the two. With the use of quite an arsenal of instruments (the obvious guitars as well as violin, viola, flute, harmonium, tambora, theremin, trumpet, etc.) and plenty of imaginative panning shifts, loops, and manipulations, the songs have a great deal of variety and depth. Slowly moving between vaguely Americana, minimal folk ballads, and hushed tone poems, this wide array of instruments keep the songs from becoming repetitive or monotonous.
"In Every Villa..." opens the album with backward loops set to "aahs" (presumably sung by Jessica). Hand drum and tambora fade in slowly, peppering the delicate ambience, creating cinematic visions of desert-scapes, war torn hovels, and desolate vistas.
Among the folk-ish songs is a traditional English song, "Gently Johnny," which is the most blatant the pop/folk element gets on this album. The drones fade out and give us a few rare seconds of just strummed acoustic guitar and vocals. Flute, viola, and treated electric guitar slowly edge their way into the mix, providing a subtle undercurrent for the song to float along.
Villa Claustrophobia seems far more fully realized than most debut albums. Jesse W. Poe's vision for Tanakh is so complete and well thought out that it sounds like it could be his third or fourth album. Where most other albums which use the "raga" sound fall into ruts of monotony, Tanakh's use of folk as a counterpoint to the drones makes this album sound fresh the whole way through, every listen.
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