Tunng
Mother's Daughter And Other Songs
Static Caravan/Feral Media


The opening title track of 'Mother's Daughter...' is an acoustic/electronic mash, a whirr of vocal and rhythmic elements that gradually forms a refrain, funnelling the Tunng sound into the rest of the album. The British duo consist of singer/songwriter Sam Genders and soft porn soundtrack composer Mike Lindsay, and 'Mother's Daughter And Other Songs' is basically acoustic songs - quite lovely songs let it be said - enhanced with beats and loops.

There is the occasional sample from daily life as in Beautiful And Light, where a train crosses vignettes of lyrical mundanity. Multi-tracked folk vocals are infused with sampled knocks and taps, with bends and folds that make this, Tunng's first album (released in the UK in 2004) a neat contribution to the genre/label of folktronica.

Part ambient electronic, part hippy chant (like much of the album), People Folk could be the Tunng anthem, the tautological title hinting at a simple, circular song of shifting tribes with a melody that sticks in the head and found sounds woven through the guitar melody. Tunng are familiar and cosy, their druidic folk underskirts are embroidered with indie pop and sensitive boy vocals, Tale From Black being a nice example of the best of these attributes, and their electronic add-ons match the softness. The olde worlde vocals on Song Of The Sea is like a fable from medieval days teleported into the digital era, and the collision works. Kinky Vans sounds like it has stolen the mojo from a Badly Drawn Boy riff and spliced it with compressed punches lined up into bent rhythms, but they are not quite bent enough. Out The Window With The Window, is another instrumental non-song, and it suffers the same fate as Kinky Vans - they are filler, texture, matching wallpaper to the actual songs rather than standing out as key instrumental pieces. It is all a little safe, but signs are Tunng are getting a bit more adventuresome. Their new album has followed hot on the heels of the local distribution of 'Mother's Daughter and Other Songs', so it just may be a case of watch this space.

Narelle Walker