mother's daughter and other songs
- Tsunami Magazine, April 2006:
- Goodness me, this one is a winner. While most acoustic artists are perfectly content to rest on their unimaginative laurels, and release albums that sound the same as every other folk record you’ve ever heard, there are actually some artists keen enough on creativity to do something fresh. Tunng are one of the blessed few and have crafted a gorgeous debut that anyone with even a remote interest in rootsy music
should take great pains to track down, as it is an honest-to-God breakthrough for the folk world. The gloriously intricate production won’t put you off, despite its wonderful incorporation of IDM styled glitches and machine noises; it still sounds lo-. enough to please fans of raw recordings. That said, it truly is a production masterwork and I’ll not even bother to tell you how great the songs are. Just buy it and see. (Greg Reason)
- David Holmes, 'What's On Your iPod?', GQ Magazine, March 2005:
- 'Song Of The Sea' is of the same ilk as Bonnie Prince Billy. This is a classic piece of beautiful folktronica.
- Q Magazine, March 2005:
- For those scared they will be forced to wear a smock if they listen to unpasteurised folk music, the folktronica scene offers an unthreatening comfort zone. With songs such as People Folk and Tale From Black, Tunng (singer and guitarist Sam Genders and producer-guitarist Mike Lindsay) have hit upon a bucolic songwriting style: gentle guitar and dandelion-seed beats punctuated by sudden clanging distortions. There's a lack of toughness at the core, though, that even references to Satan on Fair Doreen cannot hide.
- Victoria Segal (3 stars)
- Undercover Magazine, 20th February 2005:
- Tunng have their debut release on Static Caravan, and it's something rather special, a collection of folky, somewhat spooky songs that incorporate whimsical electronica and quirky, natural textures into their delicate, occasionally dark balladry and instrumentals. The press release makes much of the fact that it was recorded under a Soho lingerie shop, and mentions that the duo's Mike Lindsay also spent some time soundtracking soft porn for the Fantasy Channel. So I like to think that this is music inspired at least in part by lacy, silk underwear.
- Nautilus Navigator Nemo
- The Big Issue, 24th January 2005:
- This Is..Tunng begins with a sound like wind being broken, but, no, it's just a sly electronic drum click. The record is full of them - slaps, claps and taps, all crafted around acoustic guitar and lazy vocals. 'This Is..' bubbles away like nature siphoned through organic loops and breaks. 'People Folk' could be a sleepy Ian Brown fronting The Beta Band and 'Code Breaker' has a touch of Twisted Nerve-era Alfie about it. At times they overdo the pagan vibe but nevertheless this is a bewitching debut.
- (4 stars)
- Smallfish, 17th January 2005:
- Much-anticipated long player from Tunng on the brilliant Static Caravan label. Following on from the incredibly popular single comes a full ten track album of beautifully put together guitar based music with delicate hints of electronic manipulation. A melancholy sound pervades with wonderful, atmospheric vocals bringing to mind authentic folk music right through to savath and savalas. Reference points, however, are irrelevant as this has it's own sound through and through. A delightful album and a definite recommendation.
- Rough Trade, 17th January 2005:
- Following their lovely debut 7", here's the full length from Tunng who mix scratchy electronica with pastoral english folk to startling and beautiful effect. It pits acoustic guitars against glitchy, crunchy rhythms while still remaining folky. It's like early Beta Band mixed with the Wicker Man soundtrack.
- NME, 15th January 2005:
- Folktronica with a hint of Beta Band
- Ah, glorie be olde Albion. When we did wassail. When ye hammered dulcimer joined in with ye witches' click-house improvisations on ye olde fynthefizerf. Tis a merrie noise, not unlike ye late Beta Bande stirred into a currie with ye experimente revelrie of FourTet...In 2005 it's a surprise to hear "thou art not Satan's girl" in a popular music lyric, but Tunng are an anachronism. With a sound that combines European folk and experimental beats, Tunng are about as far from the zeitgeist as possible. And they differ from almost all other 'experimental' groups by making a gentle, pretty, heart-warming sound. Sometimes it pays to be different. Now, where's that hurdy-gurdy?
- James Kendrick (7/10)
- Piccadilly Records, 17th January 2005:
- Avant Rock Record Of The Week
- This is excellent and a very early contender for those end of year charts!!!!
- Entertainment Ireland, 11th January 2005:
- Singer Sam Genders and producer Mike Lindsay started out writing soundtracks for soft-porn movies, but don't let that put you off sampling the rather more subtle delights of their new project. In theory, mixing folk music with electronic beats sounds like a fairly unappetising recipe. In the hands of people who know what they're doing, however, it can prove surprisingly tasty - and on the evidence of Tunng's debut album, they know exactly what they're doing. If you're familiar with the cult horror movie The Wicker Man, you'll get the general idea - these are exactly the sort of songs that psychotic pagans on a remote Scottish island might hum to themselves as they're offering up another unfortunate human sacrifice. And somehow, the intrusion of modern sound effects into these elemental, doom-laden compositions only heightens the general sense of foreboding. A creepy classic.
- Andrew Lynch
- Gaz-Eta (Poland), January 2005:
- With every single release, the Scottish (!?) label Static Caravan becomes an increasingly important publisher of music combining folk traditions with electronic modernity. The next example is the debut album from the duo Tunng (Mike Lindsay and Sam Genders).
- The groundwork is predictable: crunchy, dripping rhythm settings are the base for pastoral melodies weaved with acoustic guitars, piano, violin and banjo. But the Englishmen do their best to enrich this scheme with their own ideas. Most of all these are accurately chosen samples that make the particular compositions decisively enlivened ("Out The Window With The Window", "Beautiful And Light", "Tale From Black"), neatly harmonized Simon and Garfunkel-esque vocals ("Tale From Back", "Fair Doreen", "Surprise Me") and a wide palette of inspirations running from classic folk, through renaissance music, to blues, country and sea shanties.
- Tunng's creations are some kind of synthesis of two British music traditions: the idyllic one, characterised by Incredible String Band, Steeleye Span, Lindisfarne; and the urban one, like Aphex Twin or Autechre.
- [thanks to Bartek Gil for the translation]
- Burn magazine, January 2005:
- The story: Soft porn soundtracker and singer/guitarist hook up in Soho.
- The star: Strictly a double act: there's a touching mutual dependency between Sam Genders' fragile, folkie deadpan and Mike Lindsay's scratchy electronica.
- The vibe: Pagan folk and ambient electronica, with plucked guitars blending the two in terrific trippy style.
- Analyse this: 'Like Watson and Crick/You seem to look/Into my soul/And though my DNA/Is too small for your scope/You make it/Much deeper' (Code Breaker)
- Bloodline: Pentangle, Beta Band
- Rivals: The Memory Band, Matmos
- Poster quote: The Wicker Man goes electric
- (3 flames)
- BoysToys magazine, January 2005:
- Having taken one look at the cover, which is a dead ringer for one of those Tolkien-inspired prog rock albums that rocked your Uncle Bob's world in 1973, we approached this one with fear and trepidation. But the truth is that while Tunng - producer/guitarist Mike Lindsay and singer/guitarist Sam Genders - do peddle potentially extremely irritating folky electronica with a 'quintessentially English' vibe, they actually do it very well. This is the kind of record that you get to the end of without even realising..and then keep putting it on again. Lyrically ridiculous but an excellent debut nonetheless.
- (4 stars)
- Touch magazine, December 2004:
- First time I put on 'This Is Tunng' I fell asleep, and that's no bad thing. Tunng may be hypnotic and soporific but it ain't boring. Like a folk album without the beards and cardigans, this album curves and meanders through cut 'n' paste sampling, flickering electronica and conventional songwriting. Somehow it all manages to sound new and the crisp production sets off the Beta Band-esque vocals very well. Tunng have pulled off a strong debut - your introduction to the strange and sleepy world of cyber folk.
- (4 stars)
