...And then we saw Land

Artist: Tunng
Label: Full Time Hobby
Website: tunng.co.uk

The thing about the recent resurgence of popular folk music is that without making a significant effort to stand out from the crowd, you run the risk of sounding rather ordinary. It'll still sound nice and no doubt you'll cultivate some sort of following, but there’s an ever present threat of being imminently forgettable. Of course there's ways to circumvent this pitfall, Bon Iver managed it by taking the lo-fi approach and stripping back the production, Mumford and Sons did it with a relentlessly bombastic approach and others still like Tunng have experimented with electronic augmentation. Consequently Tunng have been heralded as a breath of fresh air in many areas of the media, imbuing underlying folk themes with a myriad of electronic noises and effects whilst gamely clinging on to the twee sound inherent in the genre. This approach manifests itself in some nice flourishes of electric guitar lending a bit of muscle, sporadic glitched effects littering the tracks with digital debris along with some nice looped and cut edits that complement the music nicely.

Despite all of these promising signs the whole concept doesn't quite come together as it should, Tunng's overall sound is a shade too weak to carry off such experimentation confidently and its disappointing that the side of Tunng being celebrated as their defining factor comes across more as their weakness. Far from setting them apart from their peers the forays into electronica (or folktronica if you like saying that sort of thing) come across as more as awkward embellishments than complimentary additions. This isn't to say that the attempts are a complete failure nor that this is a bad album, but the hype surrounding ...And then we saw land is a bit undeserved when acts like Jogger and Fol Chen have adapted a similar methodology with a far greater degree of success but with less critical acclaim. The most electronic effort on display here, 'By dusk they were in the city' sounds a lot like a watered down vocal-free homage to Death In Vegas (harmonica interludes aside) played by a lounge ensemble on children's instruments. Then there's epic length 'Weekend Away' that starts out sounding a bit like Jogger and ends up in Coco Rosie territory but matches neither in appeal or individuality.

Perhaps this criticism is a bit harsh and in all honesty it would have been wise to avoid reading the press release until after reviewing the album, but it's exactly because of the plaudits that Tunng have garnered that this is less impressive than many would have you believe. In fact its on the more folk heavy tracks that this album really stands out; some excellent pick and slide guitar, uplifting piano riffs and harmonic vocals all combining to produce a lovely cohesive sound, similar yet comfortably distanced from the inherent cringe factor that haunts the genre.

And then we saw Land is utterly inoffensive in this regard but its too polished and wimpy to match the expectations that fans of their earlier work may have. Similarly it isn't fresh or progressive enough to appeal to those of you seeking something new and innovative to challenge the accepted norms of the folk rock scene. However all said this is still a nice album, you certainly wouldn't upset anyone by playing it during a cider drinking session on a sunny Sunday arvo.

James Farrell