This is Tunng - Mother's Daughter and Other Songs [CD]

The blend of English folk and gentle electronica could become a disastrously psychadelic noise-cocktail in some hands, but Sam Genders and Mike Lindsay have managed their material so skillfully that labels like "folkatronica" or "indie-electronica" just don't encapsulate what you're listening to. The solid, dark mood of the whole album is Earthy and tightly-arranged and the word "psychadelic" just doesn't apply.

Samples are handled with real sensitivity and intelligence, as in the female vocal with piano that drifts over the guitar chords in "Tale from Black;" or even the sample used in the opening track. Other, more traditional arrangements, such as "Fair Doreen" find the pair singing in luscious harmonies.

This album feels like it builds more on the country-based, Wicker-man, pagan aspect of folk, and not on the loosely arranged, joyful ambience of folk music of the Incredible-String-Band variety. The arrangements are well organised, rhythmically, and the electronic music/acoustic folk blending is seamless. Electronic sounds become another interesting musical texture in what are very original, and interesting folk-inspired arrangements.

Comparisons to four tet are inevitable for tracks like "out the window with the window," which has quite a lot of chiming, glitchy, delicate four-tet-esque qualities; but the similarities end there. Lyrical compositions and acoustic instruments prevail with Tunng, whereas four tet tends to go more in for pure acousto-electric ambience.

If you like efterklang, four tet, Colleen, or even Bjork'e Vespertine, you will enjoy this well-crafted acoustoelectric gem. Enjoy! I really can't reccommend this to you highly enough.

The main thing that lets this album down, is the fact that there aren't enough ideas within tracks. 'Suprise Me 44' has a brilliantly addictive guitar riff that really draws you in for the first few listens... however, after that, there really isn't much to listen out for. Nearly all of the songs fail because of this pattern - there will be some exquisite ideas there, but there simply won't be enough of them. And with this lack of ideas stretched over only 10 tracks, the album doesn't sustain too many listens.

That said, what Tunng do, they do well. The haunting guitar riffs in 'Out The Window...', and 'Beautiful and Light', the sound manipulation in 'Kinky Vans', and the great use of sampling in 'Tales From The Black', all make for beautiful pieces of music. This is a fabulous, original introductory album, and I really cannot wait to hear what else this band do in the future. I strongly recommend it.