Tarentel
"Ephemera" CD
Temporary
Residence Ltd.
Genres: space rock, ambient rock
PO Box 22910
Baltimore, MD 21203 USA
June 24 - 30 2002 |
There's
trouble in space rock town and Tarentel's the culprit! In a land
populated by Mogwai, Yume Bitsu, and the seven million Godspeed You
Black Emperor! offshoots, Tarentel has found a little place for itself
and is now posing quite a threat to the spacey veterans. The ironically-titled Ephemera starts off with a beautiful
piece called "The Waltz" that rolls along smoothly, starting
up with calm, minimalist guitar playing, and then gradually builds
up the tension by adding bass, drums, and shifting cymbals to the
mixture. The evolution of the track is very gradual, yet
extraordinarily intense; while its repetitive nature may
bother those with little patience, the few who wait will be pleasantly
surprised by the pure talent for songwriting and performance it
showcases. Whisking through likenesses to Fly Pan Am, Sonic
Youth, and Tortoise, the band carries out the piece
carefully and flawlessly, and the results are accordingly brilliant.
The two parts of "Two Sides of Myself" are similarly
wonderful. The first part starts with calm guitar strokes, and
then slowly builds up into a powerful, yet restrained, movement.
Upon reaching its climax, it decelerates and regresses steadily back
to the calmness in which it started. The second part is much
more experimental. Quiet guitar twangs fly by under a layer of
ambient amplifier drone. And while, unlike its predecessor, it
never builds up or slows down, it still manages to be a beautiful
piece, feeding the listener's ears with a stream of hum and spacey
guitar whispers.
Ephemera could be the best singles collection out this
year. Each track not only stands well on its own, but also flows
seamlessly with the others; this could have been called an album and
nobody would have questioned it. Releases this wonderful don't
come around all that often; go out and snatch Ephemera while
you still can.
91%
Matt Shimmer |
