Album number four from the London group is a right 'ol knees-up for our modern times, combining lap-top loops and epic folk songs with some straight-up rock to really kick things in. Storytime never sounded so good. 2ser Subscribers can win a copy of this album all week on Breakfast, Overdrive and Static.
London five-piece, Tunng, will release their fourth album, ‘...And Then We Saw Land’, this 19th March on Pod (Girls, The Soft Pack) through Inertia. Having staged an acclaimed Australia tour in 2008, including Sydney Festival, the band now present their most endearing collection of twisted pop, joyous choruses and whimsical folk yet.
Inspired by their travels abroad (Mike went to India, Ashley moved to Somerset, and the group toured with Malian desert blues troupe Tinariwen in 2009), ‘...And Then We Saw Land’ is full of adventure and experimentation: “We learned that you don’t always need structure! As long as there is presence, emotion and groove.” “We wanted to make a record that would be a great live set,” says group co-founder Mike Lindsay. “My friend described it as ‘Epic Folk Disco Brass Magnificent,’ and I’m not sure you could call any other Tunng record that.”
Following the massively acclaimed ‘Good Arrows’ in 2007, ‘...And Then We Saw Land’ is the first Tunng album to be released following the departure of co-founder and former songwriter, Sam Genders. The new album has seen Becky Jacobs step up into lead vocals position alongside Mike Lindsay. With her distinctive voice and stage banter a vital part the sound and personality of Tunng's live shows, it seemed natural now to have her sing lead vocals in the studio, and she is now a keystone for the sound, indeed, says Mike: “in many ways it's her album!”. “I'm very happy with that,” she laughs, “but really I love how my voice sounds on this, the way the production has made it work; it's still Tunng but closer to how we've always been on stage.”
What emerged from the reshuffled line-up is radically different from any of the previous three albums: for the most part the intimacy and domesticity of previous songs is replaced by a grand sweep, a feeling of a wide world being explored and alien experiences being processed and drawn into the band's lives. It's got a swagger in its step and a swing in its hips, it's not afraid to kick up a jig and blow its own trumpet. The album's richly-woven lyrics are a tapestry of images of travel and nautical life, allegories of adventure and discovery spilling from every song. And it's got guitar solos.
And yet it's still Tunng, still with that bucolic oddness and modernist gleam that made those very first basement recordings so intriguing seven long, strange years ago. They were different then, and they remain very different now; still different, but still the same.
