News that Tunng were releasing a fifth album came as a bit of a surprise, given band founder and frontman Mike Lindsay’s recent relocation to Iceland (and subsequent reinvention as Cheek Mountain Thief). Of course nobody ever said that the band was splitting up, but in their decade together their work has remained so undeservedly underground the message may never have gotten out.
It’s tempting to describe Turbines as Tunng’s most accessible album to date, given that its nine tracks see them dialling back some of the more obvious experimental flourishes which have set apart their sound even under the "folktronica" banner reluctantly thrust upon them. But while there is a certain immediacy to songs like the infectiously melodic lead single “The Village” or slow-burning album standout “So Far From Here”, it seems a bit of a disservice. Tunng’s skill is in creating compositions that sound warm and lovely from the outset, in some cases with just a little dissonance. It’s only on repeated listens that their complexities become apparent: the melodic intricacies of “Follow Follow”; the giddy rush that opens the delicate and seriously pretty “Bloodlines”; the way in which Lindsay’s voice meshes with that of co-vocalist Ashley Bates on opening track “Once”.
They may be keener to embrace the folkier elements of their sound this time around, but the album’s concluding tracks “Embers” and “Heavy Rock Warning” retain the band’s signature weirdness. “Trip Trap” is the song that has a sound most recognisably Tunng’s thanks to the way that it combines glitchy electronica with the wooziness of the melody. The thing about Tunng though is that they’re a band that only ever really sound like themselves - and throughout Turbines, what they sound like is their best selves.
Listen to the gorgeous "So Far From Here" below
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