New Artist Highlight: Tanuki Venture Is ‘Adamant’ About their New Releases [Video]
Tanuki Venture is far much less a “new artist” than an undiscovered gem from Canada who’s been producing modern music and touring with more and more complicated audio-visual exhibits since 2009. It’s truly prison they haven’t had extra curiosity but, as the standard each of manufacturing and efficiency rivals the likes of Bjork, Massive Attack, Phantogram and modern-era Kraftwerk, to call a number of. That appears about to alter, nonetheless, with the discharge of the primary two chapters from their new EP collection, Adamant.
Adamant Chapter#01 launched again in June and its lead monitor “Dystopia” has garnered the duo practically 200k streams on Spotify, so it appears somebody is certainly noticing them. It appears with this venture, Tanuki venture have actually honed their type musically, placing a steadiness of hip hop and drone construction with ambient and experimental sound design and layered, nuanced melodies from programmer Legyl’s synths and vocalist Nady’s lyrics. There’s one thing subtle about the way in which this venture was produced to this point that can possible make it enchantment to a variety of followers.
It’s to not say that earlier releases by Tanuki Venture weren’t subtle as effectively. It’s clear from releases like 2019’s “Occurring” single, the place Nady channels her interior Nina Hagen, and 2015’s UKG-and-soundsystem-inspired EP, the aptly named Soundsystem that the pair method their composition with a wholesome love of experimental music concept and certain a classical-style libretto handy. “Experimental” is the important thing time period right here, nonetheless, because it appears with these releases and their many others previous to Adamant, Legyl and Nady had been nonetheless very a lot of their wild west section sound-wise. It was wild, fascinating and passionate to make sure, but it surely appears with Adamant, they’ve screwed down a number of the free nuts and bolts to make one thing a bit extra grounded. Virtually.
Whereas Adamant Chapter#01 is melodic, orchestral and conjures emotions of early journey hop (for lack of a greater comparability), Chapter#02, launched simply this previous weekend, brings again that wilder, experimental type of earlier Tanuki Venture releases. Relying extra on drone and a sound design template that sounds nearly industrial, the title monitor opens the EP sounding desolate and minimal earlier than the workers is stuffed with space-inspired ambient work, classical piano and a distant and haunting vocal melody from Nady. Assume Krafterk meets Bowie’s “Space Oddity.” “Mountain” is much more drone-driven and industrial bringing an actual techno beat into the center of the monitor, making it probably the most danceable of the Adamant venture to this point. That’s, till it will get to closing monitor, the enjoyable, ultra-ravey and trap-grounded “Query.”
It could appear each installments of Adamant are nearly too brief, clearly leaving the listener wanting extra, however there’s a lot to unpack sonically, most followers most likely wont complain. These are the varieties of tracks one can take heed to tons of of instances and nonetheless hear one thing new on every pay attention. They’re dense, emotive and endlessly complicated. And we haven’t even talked concerning the visuals but.
Regardless of being all digital, Tanuki Venture is supposed to be a touring venture, with a great deal of visuals lighting up the stage each within the background and the 3D foreground. They’ve gotten increasingly complicated through the years, reaching a form of apotheosis because the duo started touring with an A/V professional to debut Adamant proper earlier than COVID hit. Touring and journey typically have been very restricted in Canada, so whereas they nonetheless have their A/V present locked and loaded, they’ve determined to shift focus in the interim to movies.
The primary video is for the only “Sluggish” off Adamant Chapter#01 launched in mid-November and was directed by worldwide business director whose ardour is experimental movies, Thomas Castaing. The video places an emotional visible level on the message of the tune: the sense of isolation and loss that may come from so many locations however which all of us felt and nonetheless really feel throughout COVID. It’s additionally a name to understand life and humanness, even when humanity feels fully mad. There’s nonetheless nice love right here, each tune and video appear to say, and the story hasn’t ended; it’s simply slowed down.
With the goosebump-inducing “Sluggish” video pairing, one may say it’s undoubtedly a great factor that Tanuki Venture is opting so as to add cinematic-style movies to their A/V repertoire. With extra movies deliberate for Adamant Chapter#02 and past, it’s clear the duo can translate the emotions from their exhibits to non-public screens and have an identical impression. Whereas nobody fairly is aware of the long run in the intervening time, artists like Tanuki Venture are forging forward to present each music and movie followers extra hope and sweetness in order that perhaps we are able to come to understand this slowed-down story, or on the very least the artwork created and contained inside it. To cite the duo themselves:
Head-up, soul huge, gliding throughout the plain. Current Senses looking out. Watching, respiration, listening to, Naked toes feeling the earth, Coronary heart rooted in nature. Life nasty, brutish and brief. However a minimum of conscious, a minimum of alive, a minimum of right here.
Each chapters of Adamant are out now and may be streamed on Spotify. Try Tanuki Venture’s YouTube channel to see clips from their earlier exhibits. Their wider catalog may be streamed or bought on Bandcamp.