Search - Tussle :: Kling Klang

I can't even believe this record

Dave | 03/06/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If the DFA produced a record for Tortoise, it might sound something like Tussle's debut full-length "Kling Klang." Reminiscent of the junkyard percussion of Liquid Liquid, the reverbed textural guitar builds of Do Make Say Think, and the organic dance beats and handclaps of LCD Soundsystem and !!!, Tussle creates incredibly catchy, dubby trance jams with bass-driven melodies so strong you may not be able to get them out of your head for days. I've never heard something so seemingly repetetive and droney that can stick in your head the way these songs do, and after just a few listens you may feel like you've known these songs forever. The standout track on the record is undoubtedly the last, "Tight Jeans," ingeniously revealing over its first three and a half minutes the various elements that will fold together into its climactic, driving final minute. Also incredible is Tussle's non-album track (I'm not exactly sure where it's from) "Pickup" a brilliant call-and-response jam between the bass and a distant, swirling organ line that can't help but make you feel like everything's going to be okay.



Tussle really is one of the best and most refreshing bands I've found in a long time. Referential and familiar, yet totally original in execution, and not a bad track in their entire catalog. If you have the patience for extended minimal instrumental dance jams not neccessarily made for dancing, Tussle delivers brilliantly.



(If you want to hear a sample, you can preview the single, "Disco D'oro" on the iTunes Music Store, although the album version is a different recording)"

Catchy, playful interplay

loce_the_wizard | Lilburn, GA USA | 08/09/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Yesterday--during the part of a road trip back when spirits begin to flag and all the responsibilities one has escaped start to flicker from the periphery of consciousness--from a three-day getaway, a friend handed me a CD he described a "bass `n drum stuff."



He may have purposely understated the case, as we spent the next chunk of the trip back energized and refreshed by the catchy, playful interplay of Tussle on "Kling-Klang." I'm no expert on this genre of music, its key players, or its strictures and such, so I have little insight to offer in that regard.



But if you need some music that envelopes you with a shimmering, trance kicked into overdrive by the bass/drums interplay and augmented by some minimal electronics and treatments that seem like the disembodied cries of luring sirens, then this CD fits the bill.

"