When founding
Tunng members
Mike Lindsay and
Sam Genders reunited for the first time in over a decade for their 2018 album Songs You Make at Night, they delivered a brighter version of their often darkly dreamy electro-acoustic sound. The group's blend of folk and electronic sounds historically lent itself to more foreboding soundscapes, so to hear a
Tunng record that was almost hopeful was a refreshing surprise.
Tunng Presents... Dead Club goes somewhat in the other direction of the sunny sentiments of Songs You Make at Night, serving as a soundtrack and companion piece to the group's podcast series centered around death, loss, dying, and grief. The album begins with the appropriately eerie seven-minute dirge "Eating the Dead." Grim vocal harmonies, skeletal minor-key electric piano chords, and shadowy synth sounds all drone along before audio snippets from an interview about death begin abruptly. It's a creepy start to an album all about death, but it hardly sets the tone for the entirety of
Dead Club.
Tunng's gift for obtuse hooks and interesting song structures shows up in the peppy,
John Cale-esque melodies and off-time drum programming of "A Million Colours," and a rustic guitar repetition floats atop a rhythm of distorted bass blips and watery samples on "Death Is the New Sex." Songs like these detract from the gloomy subject matter of every song on
Dead Club, with enough catchiness and interesting musical moves to take the listener's mind off the intensity of the lyrics. More audio from interviews shows up intermittently throughout the record, kicking off several songs as well as album closer "Woman." The morbid fascination with death that guides
Dead Club competes with airy instrumentals. Light, intricate chamber pop arrangements on songs like "Fatally Human" and "Scared to Death" are reminiscent of
Kevin Ayers' perky, daydreamy songwriting. The dichotomy of lyrics obsessed with death in songs that tend more towards wiry, upbeat sounds should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with
Tunng's tendency to revel in contrasting ideas. The death-centered storytelling of both the lyrics and podcast excerpts works well with
Tunng's ever-ambitious blend of mystical folk and futuristic pop, and ultimately
Dead Club's perspectives on the great beyond come off as curious and playful where they could have skewed far more fatalistic. ~ Fred Thomas