Dreamy soundscapes
The epically titled Tacoma Narrows Bridge Disaster are a young band, the British post-rock/progressive instrumental four piece only came together in 2008, but they already have a clear direction; heavy, doom laden, textural waves of noise with nods to Red Sparrows and Isis. This debut was mastered by Mehdi Safa (*Shels) so before even playing the CD we already have a reason to be interested.
As you would expect, the record builds towards and ploughs through crescendo after crescendo, however the spaces in between these waves of noise are filled with some really lovely and often interesting layers; soft melodies from the guitars and sometimes spoken vocal samples or chunky metal riffs wrapped up with playful rhythms from the drums (‘Winchester Pump’). The build-ups themselves are often very beautiful; vast echoes and heart rending chord changes make your skin prickle, ‘Seaweed’ has this combination of delicate moments, changes of rhythm and really heavy moments, it’s a great all rounder to check out to give you an idea of their sound. The band also know how to do straight forwardly solid and heavy too, ten minute track ‘Sunday’ is full of dark, crunchy riffs and shows they don’t shy away from turning the volume up full if it’s needed.
T.N.B.D. hold your interest over the hour or so of this album easily, obviously fully instrumental albums are not to everybody’s taste but they do a great job on “Collapse” by injecting tons of personality in to each track in the form of quirky little tuneful riffs and a solid quiet/loud format, if progressive soundscapes are your thing then this album should make a welcome addition to your collection.