Product Description
Australian group {|Tangents|} have continually tightened their approach to rhythmic improvisation, with each successive release sounding more natural without fitting into any categories or conventions. {|Timeslips & Chimeras|} is a double album that displays the group's gift for spontaneous creation as well as their post-production studio creativity. Originally released digitally in 2020, the first half, {|Timeslips|}, was mainly recorded in a single day, and is more closely based on improvisations. The individual tracks seem too focused to be excerpts cut from an endless jam session, but there's nothing rigid about them, and they flow in unpredictable ways. Vessel is an early standout, with a shimmering Rhodes melody recurring like a flash of a poignant memory, and {|Nick Calligeros|}' distant trumpet playing lighting up the night sky in the background. Old Organs is a prime example of how {|Tangents|} dissolve boundaries between synthetic and organic instrumentation, with intricate, raindrop-like beat patterns similar to the grey-area drum'n'bass of producers like {|ASC|} and {|Sam KDC|}, later joined by propulsive live drumming. Debris is slower and uneasier, with much heavier layers of guitar noise recalling {|Mogwai|} at their most imposing, pushing into full force by the track's end. While {|Timeslips|} is already quite technology-forward, second part {|Chimeras|} is more deconstructive, with more post-production effects and overdubs. Tracks like Lilliputian and Timeslip are murkier and less stable than some of the band's other pieces, and Lost Track has more broken electronic beats while maintaining a jazzy sophistication. Chimera is more of a tense ambient study in which a stately drum beat and solemn violin and piano eventually emerge. The double album compellingly demonstrates how {|Tangents|} create their own distinctive musical language, then rewrite it as they go along. ~ Paul Simpson
