Turbines
What started as a far more experimental ensemble has modified itself into a smart and economical group where a mix of acoustic guitars, sweet harmonies, and electronic manipulations create carefully constructed songs with no wasted effects. Songs such as \"Once\" and \"By This\" could survive with only acoustic guitar and harmonies, yet the extra synth effects add color and soothing bottom-end sounds for consistency\'s sake. Frontman Mike Lindsay relocated to Iceland and worked on an album with local musicians there before reuniting with his old band members. Despite their years apart, the sound is actually *tighter* here. The pulsing mystery of \"The Village\" is guided by a rhythm section that\'s locked and loaded. The band claims this is its \"sci-fi folk-rock\" album, but it\'s less prog and more pop. \"Bloodlines\" takes The Fairport Convention\'s sound and adds modern technology. \"Follow Follow\" could be Simon & Garfunkel fully modernized, with the band doing to itself what producer Tom Wilson once did to the folk duo.
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The folktronica collective's fourth album pulls everything they'd hinted at with their previous work in to focus, making it arguably their finest record to date.
Over the course of their development, U.K. indie collective Tunng have always been torn between their folky hearts and their sometimes manic electronic impulses, usually ending up in a hypnotic middle ground between the two.
Frontiersmen and women of the ‘folktronica’ movement, Tunng have long blended gentle, well-rounded folk melodies with morsels of twee electronic experimentation, making music akin to a cosy hand-knitted cardigan with a high-vis lining. Album number five, with its rustic instrumentation and unisonous him-’n’-her vocals, doesn’t tread radically different ground from the previous four – no great shame, given that winsome formula.
Tunng's latest is a concept album about a fictional village whose inhabitants impose their personalities on the music itself, writes <strong>Maddy Costa</strong>
Folktronica pioneers dial back the experimental flourishes to create a lovely fifth album. CD review by Lisa-Marie Ferla