tAngerinecAt: Grief
(self-released)
CD | DL | Vinyl
Launched Could 2025
Experimental duo tAngerinecAt return with an album brimful of affection, loss, anger and transformation. Andy Brown explores Grief for Louder Than Struggle.
I first got here throughout experimental duo tAngerinecAt through their elegant 2022 LP, Glass. This darkish but distinctly defiant album was – and stays – one of the crucial memorable and startling introductions I’ve needed to a band in a while. Severely, neither Donovan or the Butthole Surfers can put together you for what non-binary vocalist, poet and multi-instrumentalist Zhenia Purpurovsky (he/him) can do with a hurdy-gurdy. It’s been a number of years however Purpurovsky and Paul Chilton (they/them) are again with Grief: a fancy and emotional album brimful of affection, loss, anger and transformation.
Placing the hurdy-gurdy to 1 aspect, the document is made up of atmospheric synths and industrial digital textures. On the centre of this now we have Purpurovsky’s unimaginable voice: an arresting and unquestionably passionate presence all through the albums eight tracks. Simply take heed to the sparse and placing title observe that opens up the LP. Utilizing overtone singing strategies, Purpurovsky’s Japanese European tones fill the house and ship shivers up my woefully underprepared backbone. The phrases to this specific music are sung in Ukrainian however you don’t must lookup the interpretation to really feel each single syllable in your soul.
tAngerinecAt are based mostly in North Wales however Chilton is initially from Cheshire and Purpurovsky was born within the Ukraine. This creates a singular sense of place that echoes via the document in quite a few methods, from the songs sung in Ukrainian to the thread of Welsh mythology that informs the albums narrative. Grief is a profoundly private mission with Purpurovsky’s identification, trauma and a robust anti-war/ anti-fascist sentiment operating via the very coronary heart of the document.
The album embraces minimalism, stripping every part again to let the stark soundscapes and Purpurovsky’s voice actually shine. Simply take the evocative March of Mourn: a minimalistic beat that progressively evolves right into a brooding wave of synths and the sound of waves crashing in opposition to the shore. “Give me energy to bury the missiles” go the phrases like some secular anti-war prayer. That is the ache, the hope and – certainly – the grief that occupies the album.
Freedom ramps up the depth as Purpurovsky lets out an impassioned plea: “Take my nationality/ Give me many languages/ I wish to be free.” The sound design all through the album is completely exemplary; shifting between near-pin drop moments of quiet to intense industrial dread. A way of each hypnotic concord and inescapable pressure. The Irish Sea has an virtually bodily presence because it judders uncomfortably from my headphones. They might be electronically conjured however the textures listed here are harking back to early industrial music the place sheet metallic and oil drums had been used as instrumentation.
Downtrodden however eternally defiant: that is darkish, ominous and decidedly indignant music. Each phrase on Hearth is expelled via gritted-teeth. “I’m raging/ I’m demolishing oppression” the singer spits as the stress continues to rise. Subaltern hits us with a throbbing, cathartic bombardment of beats. Purpurovsky seethes over the noise: “To this nation I got here by luck/ Truthful-play you say? What the fuck! Who’re you to inform me who I’m? Who do you assume you’re to outline me?” For all its spectacular technical accomplishments, Grief is an album propelled by a uncooked, palpable ardour.
The duo are atheists however have talked about incorporating the tone of Japanese Orthodox liturgy into the album; this ceremonial spirit is especially outstanding on a observe like Gwyn ap Nudd. The title refers back to the King of the “honest folks” in Welsh mythology and right here serves as a metaphorical and transformative conduit for Purpurovsky. Sung in Ukrainian, the vocal efficiency is nothing in need of spine-tingling. Cyhyraeth is called after a Welsh mythological spirit and offers us with a suitably ghostly and endlessly intriguing conclusion. I may study each part of the duo’s sound and nonetheless not grasp fairly how they do what they do. Actually, it’s like magic.
To my ears, the album remembers artists as various as Einstürzende Neubauten and Angelo Badalamenti whereas Purpurovsky has cited everybody from Gesaffelstein to Ghostpoet as influences. But in the end, tAngerinecAt may by no means actually sound like anybody however themselves. Drawing from the private and political, the duo have crafted one other daring, passionate and artistically completed album. It’s actually a darkish and inarguably intense document but by no means one which’s devoid of hope. Grief is the sound of perseverance, the triumph of artwork and the human spirit within the face of adversity.
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You could find tAngerinecAt on Fb and Instagram.
Take heed to and purchase their music on Bandcamp HERE.
All phrases by Andy Brown. You possibly can go to his creator profile and skim extra of his critiques for Louder Than Struggle right here.
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