Listening to Telescope Mind, you get a sense that that Tussle’s music starts with the drums. The San Fran four-piece assemble each track from samples, synths, bass guitar, bells, clave, cowbells, cymbals, bottles, buckets, bike wheels, keyboards, marimba, timbales and even slapstick (on “Pow’, according to the liner notes). But underpinning it all is an almost architecturally structured, but far from rigid framework of bass-heavy beats.
The bright geometric design, distressed typeface and funky disco rhythms might have you thinking this band is just another Modular outfit – all looks, no context. But look deeper. That cover’ designed by legendary Norwegian musician/artist Kim Hiorthøy. The record’ mastered by Kit Clayton. And Liquid Liquid’ Sal Principato and Dennis Young join in on the album’ closing track.
A squealing horn kicks it off over a gradually building groove. The horn player’ not credited, which might mean it’s sampled or synthesized; in any case, it’s a punk-jazz statement of intent. Unlike their “post-punk’ contemporaries, Tussle draw on sounds happening now as much as the shared influences (Kraut rock, dub, “80s disco, post-punk).
“Elephants’, halfway through the record, is a thundering, stomping tribal techno rhythm. Immediately after, the group confounds expectations with “The Story of Meteorites’, a free jazz/electro-acoustic hybrid. And “Trappings’ bites with the kind of grinding, single-note bassline rarely seen outside 2-step or tough breakbeat. Despite losing their bass player (Andy Cabic) to Devendra Banhart’s supporting band last year, the group sounds much tighter than on their 2004 debut Kling Klang.
It’s instrumental disco propelled by long grooves, along the lines of Fujiya Miyagi. But over almost 50 minutes, Telescope Mind also has a textural depth their contemporaries can’t match.
Matthew Levinson
