MUSIC REVIEW: Tundracolour ‘7’
I feel like I’m settling into a classic John Carpenter film as 7 fades into my headphones – the synth arpeggio and waves of bass setting an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. It’s a perfect blend of excitement and nausea.
The lyrics, to me, talk about getting out of a toxic relationship, and the soundscape of the track echoes this – representing a saddened anger at wasted time, feelings of self-guilt, outward angst, and the overwhelm of reclaiming a sense of self after 7 years without one.
7 plays out like a 3a.m. mental breakdown, with a gradual rise that grows and grows to the distorted screaming in the outro. Layers are slowly introduced in clear sections, occasionally dropping out to create aural interest, but everything unifying into a cohesive ending section. You can really feel the anger and distress pouring out of the vocal delivery. I love the ‘escape’ rhyming scheme, appearing in words like ‘made’, ‘wait’, ‘hate’, ‘wade’ – not to mention the mirrored ‘escape room’ and ‘escape route’ phrasing.
The drum pattern established in the first verse becomes the backbone for Tundracolour’s sonic textures to float over. Notably, I like that the sub-bass is kept out of the mix until near the end of the track, the extra room in the low end helping get the earworm kick pattern into the listener’s skull, and splitting the song into two sections of set-up (no bass) and pay-off (fuck yeah, bass).
The staccato synths remind me of the keys in Flume’s Insane, and they echo the kick triplet that supports the whole track. Actually, multiple elements stutter in the track, and it keeps a feeling of instability while also grounding every element in the same rhythmic motif of the kick. Introducing so many layers of elements as the track progresses could have easily felt messy, but Tundracolour gives the listener the chance to mentally associate every element into either ambience or rhythmic, by contrasting two primary elements when they’re introduced (e.g the ethereal pad next to the arpeggio at the beginning of the song, or the monotone vocals next to the Tyler, The Creator-esque synth in the outro).
There’s a bunch of ear candy that’s been lolly-scrambled throughout the track. I can’t word how it all makes me feel, so I’m just going to list out my favourite bits:
The ‘pew-pew-pew’ impact at 0:31.
Whatever the weird bone-chewing/grinding foley matching the hi-hats is? (tasty)
Having “jump-” and “jump right-“ panning between channels during the breakdown and bridge.
Any time the vocal gets doubled makes the backing vocal a new instrument
“uhhh” on the left channel 2:04, reminds me of the “eurgh” in Starstruck by Sorry
The high-pass filter on the staccato pads around 2:16
Overall, I really enjoyed listening to 7 – the synths have been lodged in my brain all these months – and I look forward to hearing what the Tundracolour duo puts out next. Give 7 a listen on Soundcloud, Spotify, or Apple Music and look out for their next release “our time at the sky pillar” out soon!
