Tangents: Timeslips | 4ZZZ Brisbane 102.1FM

- I first came to Sydney avant-garde (jazz, idm, ambient, post-rock, downtempo mashup) supergroup Tangents via their 2016 breakthrough album, Stateless. It was a powerhouse of improvisational experimentation, featuring a spectrum of musical moods: from lush, classic downtempo to manic idm and everything in between; there was a variety of standout moments. Their follow-up full-length, New Bodies, took a different approach, one which I described at the time as being full of “looping rhythmic structures, tooled with stunning speed and precision into great, ambient soundscapes” all of which took them full-circle, back to the sound of their very first LP, I. Tangents really must have decided that their original plan was the best one, because come LP 4, Timeslips, they’re slipping back to those old ways again.

Slowly undulating, soft-focus backdrops of sound are the vast stage, in the middle of which drummer Evan Dorian sits hunched over his kit, hammering out -with unnerving focus- his tightly grouped bars. It’s as though we were listening to the amplified marching of a million ants, endlessly obsessed with their own, inscrutable mission. Just listen to single Old Organs for the blueprint. The skill is impressive as heck and the slowburn manner in which Tangents maintain that tension will have sweat beading on the back of your neck.

Although I imagine the band like being called post-rock just as little now as they ever did, it provides one of the major sources of progression in the song: the sound growing and growing, but almost imperceptibly because it moves at such a glacial rate. Contra the post-rock playbook, however, it never quite builds to the bombastic thunder that you’d expect from Mogwai or Mono. Instead, what it ends up being like, is the endlessly intricate sound collages of The Necks. It induces the same kind of spiritual awe that has made the outfit a cult institution, but is as emotionally minimal as they are too.

If you deep-dive into the record you may get more, but the initial impression is that the first four cuts of Timeslips play out exactly this way. It’s uncompromising in its micromanaged power, but, at the same time, I was glad when I arrived at the record’s fifth number, Debris. Its loud, fuzzy, gouts of guitar and undulating piano riffs are part of a bluesy swing. The beats, for just about the first time, are prepared to be the accompaniment, rather than the main game. Even so, there's a lot going on and with the deluxe toolbox of percussion: tuned, drums, found object and synthetic, the cut ends up channeling a super-charged version of Bone Machine era Tom Waits; pretty great, to be honest.

Lengthy closer Bylong is another different direction: a languid, jazzy, ambient soundscape, that is like an exhale after all the preceding, unrelenting intensity. There’s an improvisational quality to it that actually made me stop and think. Tangents are an improv band and I had assumed that the reason they produced the hypnotic, looping patterns that dominate so much of Timeslips is because they were simply vamping in the way that improv bands do. Now I wonder if that’s the case, is all that energy a sign of hypervigilant control, a sound planned to the last iota? This impression was reinforced by listening to the live record Tangents released earlier this year, the aptly titled Risk Reaps Reward. Created in an environment where control is necessarily lessened, the results are very nice and exhibit both a lighter touch and a sound palette where more elements of the band are blended in.

Timeslips is a record that exhibits just how talented Tangents are, but their glory may also be a cul-de-sac, a frozen throne to which they ascended and where they're now stuck in place. The moments where that inwardly directed stream of power seems to slip out of their control, producing wild, garish gestures, may be their best.

- Chris Cobcroft.
<iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=2243971523/size=large/bgcol=f…; seamless><a href="https://tangents.bandcamp.com/album/timeslips">Timeslips by Tangents</a></iframe>