The Needle Was Travelling is Tarwater’s seventh
album and their first for Moor Music. Tarwater is a
duo made up of producer/instrumentalist Bernd Jestram
and singer/ instrumentalist Ronald Lippock, perhaps
best known as one third of German post rock group To
Rococo Rot.
The Needle Was Travelling begins with gurgling
squelches rivetted into a prowling hip-hop beat in turn
menaced by lurking guitars. When the vocals kick in
the music takes an unexpected turn: vocals change everything,
serving as an unavoidable focal point. The socio/biological
conditioning that enables each and every one of us to
be incredibly fine judges of vocal pitch and tone is
the preparation we need to survive in a potentially
hostile world. So what does the tenor of Lippock’s
delivery tell the listener? Well, he’s generally
insouciant, just the right side of casually sneering.
He’s cool and calm and the subtext is that he’s
an urban soul, maybe taken a few knocks and isn’t
going to reach out too far, but is willing to tell you
a story or two, make a few observations. He’s
too shagged to swagger, but he’ll stroll and stare.
That’s the cod psychology for you, anyway.
The music is a sophisticated meshing of guitars, busily
efficient rhythms and electronica. It is in somewhat
similar territory to Funkstörung,
but executed in a much more convincing manner than that
group’s Isolated project. Stone,
with its jangling guitar and synths, is reminiscent
of New Order, located somewhere between Power, Corruption
& Lies and Low-Life. Babylonian
Tower recalls classic Cluster but played on guitars
by Americans. At times, as on The People, Tarwater
achieve a convincing rhythmic integration that comes
on like a technologised rhythm and blues. Interesting,
in a good way. The group ultimately prove hard to pin
down, ably dancing around the lazy darts of easy generalisations.
Colin Buttimer
4/5 |
