Tarwater - Animals, Suns & Atoms
(Mute)
Writing reviews about cds that suck from bands you like is, generally, a
bad idea. Because I liked Tarwater's earlier records so much,
Silur in particular, releasing an inferior record is like a
betrayal to be taken personally. Thus, the review is less an objective
assessment of the album on its own merits, and more of a litany of how
its not as good as Silur. This, perhaps, is not fair to Tarwater,
but it's their own damn fault for not releasing a better record!
"K.R. ? L.E.G." starts off the disc in a promising enough way with dark
whirs, secret robot whispers, klinks and drips. But that track is only
fifty-six seconds and it's all downhill from there. Animals, Suns &
Atoms is way too pop. And not in a kool, kwirky German kind of way,
but in a lame British new wave kind of way. It took me several attempts
at listening to the disc to even get through the third track, "Noon,"
which drags on for over seven minutes with the same lame piano/string
sample, crappy drum- machine beat, and a "soulful" trip-hop style backup
vocal a la Tricky. Maybe if they had cut the song in half, or put it on
at the end, it would not have seemed so bad. Having it right front just
doesn't bode well.
What made Tarwater's previous work interesting was it's accidental,
dream-like qualities. At its best, it sounded like three AM radio
frequencies being picked up simultaneously: a music station playing
bizarre, crackly old records, another that's not quite coming in, and
a third with a chanting somnambulist on the microphone. The majority of
the songs on Animals, Suns & Atoms, are too busy, and move at a
pace that seems too hurried for the languid, spoken vocals. They are
frequently bright and sunny. Squirky keyboards noises and plinking
sounds that would have once been eerie and evocative, on "Song of the
Moth" become cute and annoying when shored up by lush Cure-like synth
washes and lazy, bouncing Euro-pop beats.
If Mouse on Mars playing half-assed Book of Love covers sounds appealing
to you, maybe you'd like Animals, Suns & Atoms. However, I
think you'd be better of just buying a copy of Niun Niggung and
Book of Love and playing them simultaneously.
|
