Tarentel
We Move Through Weather
(Temporary Residence)
There's a saying that goes something like, 'sometimes you have to destroy what you love to help it survive.' I'm probably at least partially garbling the true words in order to indirectly make a point, but if the above saying indeed holds true then Tarentel have definitely taken those words to heart with We Move Through Weather. Nothing short of a complete stylistic change from their melodic, beautiful instrumental post rock passages of old, these new eight tracks from the group combine texture and rhythm in a powerful, almost primal way that will most likely make fans of their old work scratch their heads a bit.
The opening track of "Hello! We Move Through Weather!" lets you know what you're in for right away with controlled blasts of feedback and a repetitive pounding of drums that basically provides a backbone on which to lay all kinds of lo-fi noise and dense walls of screech. Towards the end, some single guitar chords come into play, but the whole thing just sort of breaks apart and even ends mid-phrase. "Elephant Shoes" is a short burst of filtered horns that again raises the feedback level and almost makes it seem like the group is just tinkering around.
Then again, the group is right back with the heavy rhythms on "Get Away From Me You Clouds Of Doom" and once again the modus operandi is very similar to the opening track. As drums rumble away, all kinds of sustained chords of organs and random noise boxes swarm in and the whole thing turns into a thick soup at the midpoint while elements struggle to break free for the rest of the track. At almost 17 minutes long, it stretches a bit thin. When the group does bring a bit more melody into the mix (even if it is very minor) with the lovely piano chords of "Bump Past, Cut Up Through Windows," it really helps the release break free from the almost primal dirge that it's set forth with.
"Cloud No Bigger Than A Man's Hand" again brings back the heavy rhythmic backbone mixed with ambient washes of sound, and while it uses the same building blocks as other tracks, the simple addition of ascending guitar melodies helps give it much more emotional weight. Given that We Move Through Weather is such a stylistic leap from that of their old work, fans of their previous output shouldn't expect the melodically-driven songs of past. As mentioned above, the group moves back in that direction slightly on a couple tracks (and is much better for it), but in places the group just completely scatters the field with their super-repetitive drum and drone mix. After their superior contribution to the recent TRR50 Thank You compilation, it's a bit odd to hear them moving so far away from what made them so great in the first place. If you have some patience, there are some rewarding pieces to this, but you may also find yourself frustrated just as much.
Rating: 6
