Tunng @ Band on the Wall, Tuesday 23rd March, 2010

Tonight is a nervy one for Tunng. It’s the first time they’ve performed the new material from ...And Then We Saw Land and they are without usual songwriter Sam Genders in a modified line-up. The nerves show early on; they don’t exude their usual buoyant, smiley selves until the set’s halfway point. Until then they are static; frozen by a collective nervousness and uncertainty with only infrequent glimmers of the confident finale to come.

Erland & the Carnival precede them. They’re a band with a name that suits their sound almost perfectly. With guitars set to steel drum sound, their carnival is of a twisted variety; I can picture The Chemical Brothers’ imposing clown image on a Ferris wheel at times in their music. There are also a whistled lament and Espers-esque chord changes, while references remain mostly in the indie pop range; The Coral and The Futureheads in places.


Tunng begin with new tunes ‘It Breaks’ and ‘Don’t Look Down or Back’, followed by the familiar triumphant strums of ‘Take’ and ‘Woodcat’ to settle into more of a rhythm. ‘October’ and ‘The Roadside’ signal a further sense of assuredness as more electronics, xylophone and melodica thicken the sound, but it is ‘By Dusk They Were in the City’ that really brings the sextet out of their shell. The announcement by Mike Lindsay that we have just heard the first electric guitar in Tunng’s live shows also wakes up the audience; a predictable, but witty, Bob Dylan's 1966 Manchester Free Trade Hall gig-referencing heckle of “Judas!” leads the way for the free flowing eccentricity that epitomises Tunng’s vibe.


‘Tale From Black’, an a cappella ‘These Winds’ and the summertime swayer of ‘Santiago’ welcome in the onstage looseness of movement that was previously lacking. Lindsay shows his support to BBC 6music’s cause before ‘Hustle’, a song on their radio playlist, and the encore of ‘Jenny Again’ and ‘Bullets’ offers a euphoric lift in direct contrast to the muted start.

Words: Ian Pennington
Images: Simon Bray

Album review: Tunng - ...And Then We Saw Land

An upbeat start to Tunng’s fourth and latest full-length collection ...And Then We Saw Land signifies their musical charm hasn’t been lost in the three year wait since Good Arrows in 2007. This time has seen former lead vocalist and co-founding member Sam Genders release an album and tour with side project The Accidental, before stepping aside from Tunng altogether. The remaining quintet then merged with Malian blues band Tinariwen for BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction show and a subsequent tour, after which they could be forgiven for shifting from folktronic focus.

Indeed, some post-Tinariwen collaboration expectation was for a change of style, but the record itself still balances acoustic charm with progressive glitches and gadgetry, and you get the feeling that it’s largely business as usual in that sense. However, thoughts of a new Tuareg-inspired direction are perhaps unfounded given that Tunng have always been their own band; it is their tendency to colour outside the lines of conformity that saw them as subjects of a genre created around them, after all. Electric-acoustic layering on ‘By Dusk They Were in the City’ and the chirpy ‘Santiago’ serve as reminders of the ‘folktronica’ trend, and ‘Don’t Look Down or Back’ displays the same knack for a shift from shimmering folk balladry to a Wilco-esque chorus often heard on previous albums.

So as successful as the Tunng with Tinariwen experiment proved, there’s no harm in going back to what you know, especially when what they know is how to excel in crafting delicate melodies around earnestly relayed tales.

Tunng release ...And Then We Saw Land on 1st March on the Full Time Hobby record label.

Words: Ian Pennington