For their third full-length, Good Arrows, British six-piece Tunng continue to deliver the same combination of folk, pop, and indie electronica that earned the band the description of "folktronica." Lightly programmed beats and blips pepper the acoustic guitar arpeggios that give the songs their base, as Sam Genders' soft vocals layer over themselves and those of the backup singers and the myriad other instruments that twist and squirm their way into the compositions. Kalimba, hammer dulcimer, clarinet, eclectic samples, and electric guitar all manage to find their way in, but they're arranged in such a way -- gently, sparsely, deliberately -- that nothing ever seems cluttered or ornate. This is helped in part due to the attention paid to structure here, because even with the noises and distractions and long stretches of space, there's a cleanliness to the songs, verses and choruses and even the occasional hook all playing an important part in the album's overall effectiveness. The fantastic "Bullets" almost seems like it could be by the (later) Beatles, with the line "We're catching bullets in our teeth/It's hard to do but they're so sweet" pushing itself into the foreground as the one-two piano rhythm beats out playfully behind. Not every track on Good Arrows is as immediate as this, but all have a contagious, subtle beauty that makes them impossible to ignore, even as Genders sings explicitly about body parts, focusing on the visceral perhaps as an attempt to accommodate for what he cannot understand. "He crawls into her aorta.../He crawls like a rat inside her spine" he sings in "Hands," only later to bluntly state "One day we will be dead," almost as if he was trying to avert the unavoidable by exploring and rebuilding the body himself, or in "String," where he and vocalist Becky Jacobs sing of being lost in themselves, "Hang my eyes up on a hook.../Inside my own skin I fail to find myself again," as wind instruments and minor keys swirl around darkly behind. But even with all this, the obsession with the corporeal, with death, the album ends on a lighter note, as if Tunng realize that life isn't all bad, isn't simply the path to the inevitable finish. "It's fine if we are by our side," Genders sings, which, despite the triteness of the statement, provides a nice ending to the record, lighter and breezier, balancing the concern with enjoyment, and making Good Arrows a very complete album indeed.
Tunng, Geoff Farina and Brown Bird Live in CambridgeMiddle EastCambridge, MA USAOctober 25, 2007by Jennifer Kelly Who ever thought that Tunng would be such a party?The British band Tunng has been steadily moving away from it origins in delicate electronic folk towards a poppier, more exuberant sound. The newest album Good Arrows bobs and weaves giddily, its hooky melodies couched in three- and ...
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TunngGood ArrowsFull Time Hobby/Thrill JockeyTo the 18-35 set passive aggression is seen as a generally bad thing; no one likes to be told something nasty in a sweet way, no one likes little pseudo-cute notes left on their toilet seats, refrigerators or desks informing them that “…it’d be great if we could go ahead and do it this way from now on....”. However, when it comes to music, passi
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Tunng, the British electronic/folk/pop duo that has recently grown into a band, has a new album out, called Good Arrows. It’s very fine, as you’d expect if you’ve heard either of their previous albums, but maybe a bit more conventionally pop…anyway, my Dusted review went up today, and here’s the beginning:In the past several years, Tunng has evolved from a studio-only, sound-pasting, me
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It hasn’t been too long since Tunng has had us mesmerized with Comments Of The Inner Chorus. I could still enjoy this tender mellowness on my iPod really. Low like vocals, Akron/Family like musical structure along with some The Microphones/Khonnor-ish sounds; this band has been a favorite of mine ever since I was grabbed by Woodcat.After almost a year, Tunng are releasing a new record called Go.
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I'm posting about experimental folk. Tunng from the UK, in particular.Though I have little to nothing to do with this genre, I can't help it, I like their song Bullets so much and it has a beautiful new video!(maybe I like Bullets 'cause it's not _that_ folky? I wonder)Speaking of Tunng beautiful videos, It's Because...We've Got Hair:Check out the Tunng MOG love by Jenny, Puffy, Kate and Michae...
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It looks like I've been Mogging for two years to the day (i.e. Monday). It was the one time I had nothing to say but then my favorite unloved album of last year came up on iTunes and I started thinking of songs, years, decades.visceral thing, intangible song;things i've known seem to fall away.here i go again.~ Tunng1984. Gothic rock was relocating Seventies punk. I'd crossed unscathed from Dur...
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You've probably heard that Harp is kaput, which is a drag from any number of perspectives, but one of them is that the stuff that they haven't published will never be published. I'm going to put it here. You'll have to squint a little to imagine the photos and glossy paper and neat typefaces, but you're all imaginative, creative people. I'm sure you can do it.RIP Harp. It was fun.The tip of...
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TunngGood ArrowsFull Time Hobby/Thrill JockeyTo the 18-35 set passive aggression is seen as a generally bad thing; no one likes to be told something nasty in a sweet way, no one likes little pseudo-cute notes left on their toilet seats, refrigerators or desks informing them that “…it’d be great if we could go ahead and do it this way from now on....”. However, when it comes to music, passi
More >
Tunng, Geoff Farina and Brown Bird Live in CambridgeMiddle EastCambridge, MA USAOctober 25, 2007by Jennifer Kelly Who ever thought that Tunng would be such a party?The British band Tunng has been steadily moving away from it origins in delicate electronic folk towards a poppier, more exuberant sound. The newest album Good Arrows bobs and weaves giddily, its hooky melodies couched in three- and ...
More >
Tunng, the British electronic/folk/pop duo that has recently grown into a band, has a new album out, called Good Arrows. It’s very fine, as you’d expect if you’ve heard either of their previous albums, but maybe a bit more conventionally pop…anyway, my Dusted review went up today, and here’s the beginning:In the past several years, Tunng has evolved from a studio-only, sound-pasting, me
More >
Just got this album, this song is a HIT if it ever gets played once, just a great bizarre pop song and it reminds me of very early Pink Floyd. Anyone who can write tunes as catchy as this and Bricks - and check out the first verse to the latter - The bicycles inside your skullSend you away and off you goInto the streets where all the pretty girls collect their thoughts for youand pin them up to...
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I'm really stressed with uni at the moment, but today I was muchly cheered up by this song. And indeed the rest of the album. How can you not love a song whose only lyric is 'soup!' and whose intro is a horse race commentary with soup-slurping noises in the background?!
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It hasn’t been too long since Tunng has had us mesmerized with Comments Of The Inner Chorus. I could still enjoy this tender mellowness on my iPod really. Low like vocals, Akron/Family like musical structure along with some The Microphones/Khonnor-ish sounds; this band has been a favorite of mine ever since I was grabbed by Woodcat.After almost a year, Tunng are releasing a new record called Go.
More >
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 "Good Arrows")
