17. they are gutting a body of water - Lucky Styles

Smoking Room. 2022. 10 songs, 23 minutes

I was sad to miss TAGABOW when they played in Brooklyn days ago. I have been digging their sound for a while but never was able to see them live. Something else was more important, and that something else was my band’s last rehearsal before our first gig ever (also in Brooklyn, last Tuesday). Looking back, missing TAGABOW was worth not messing up our newest additions to the setlist. If I ever have to miss them again, it should only be for something as important, yet insignificant, as this reason.

The first song is named “tagabow (intro).” I hear feedback and an unpleasant screeching kind of sound. The lead guitar comes in, with that affirmative, direct yet muffled tone I have grown to expect from this band. The guitar plays a weird pattern, it sounds like something out of a creepy place, like those unsettling circus sounds… but made with guitar strings and a medley of effects. When the rhythmic session joins and an other guitar provides a harmonic platform, I still feel uncomfortable. The creepy guitar is still in the back, with that screeching feedback ««What is going on?»» After the first section I am left only with the second guitar and its chord progression, and then I enter the second part of this song, much louder and distorted than the first one. The screeching feedback returns, and then a new section accompanies me to the end merging the creepy playfulness of the first part one with the more serious and gloomy undertones of the distorted second one. I’m definitely interested, not sure why.

“kmart amen break” is a more conventional song, with an intro that an echoey guitar briefly introduces with a singer faded in the back of the mix. It doesn’t take long for the song to become noisier and for me to understand that the chords of the intro and verse are not the most important ones guiding this song. The loud harmonics of the chorus carry the emotional weight of this one. At some point I hear some really dissonant and unpredictable rhythmic patterns, but I realize its just that my window is open and there’s a car playing loud music while waiting by the red light in the corner. Clearly, I really don’t know what to expect from this album. The loud part turns into a quiet one with sad (dropped d?) chords. It is in these insane dynamics that TAGABOW captivates me. A few distorted high pitched voices join the strumming, as well as other more indecipherable elements obviously meant to disturb any sense of ease I could be getting into the outro.

In the intro to “behind the waterfall” you can hear guitars being guitars more clearly. Shoegaze with its effect-drenched strumming sometimes takes away that more organic feeling of strumming (the “attack,” my friend Maurice would say). There is a playful simple melody played with a synth that is also marking some lower sounding chords. The drums have an interesting, syncopated rhythm which the guitars sometimes mimic, more effectively towards the end. “violence ii” feels like it has some more open chords and a fresher tone. Is this another flanger pedal? The vocal melodies have a nice balance with the friendly chords on this one. They relate almost like in a call and response fashion, going up and down in different melodic patterns. The distortion returns by the end of the song but the fun is not over, some of it returns in the last few measures.

“coke freestyle” sounds weird, noisy, from the start. It is as strange for me to assume it is not going to take a more conventional form structure. I feel validated when it doesn't. There is something with intermittent pitches that I hate (in a good way)… what I imagine a guitar imitating the flying wings of a crusty bug would sound like. “webmaster” is more of what I came for. A faster chord progression with dreamy vocals that get lost in a sea of distortion, come back to surface, and get drowned again. In this one I feel like I can hear a second voice, but it is really hard to tell. The chord progression is strong, demands to be a protagonist. It blends well with the rhythmic section, which accompanies its patterns and communicative urgency.

“threes” feels synthetic, like I would love it as the background of a videogame in which I only have to build things, not attack anything or anybody. The electronic drums give a nice flow, with some short, fast, breaks. The synthesizers give me chords that make me feel elated. Eventually they become more somber, but always within an overall lightness that is unlike the rest of the songs in the album (except for maybe the first one). “delta p” has more grungy sounding guitars, my head responds accordingly. A distorted guitar and synths provide a complex moment of explosion before the verse, structured around that cleaner guitar progression and a weird synth pattern. The distorted part bridges verse one and the super loud part that I thought was coming to introduce a chorus but in reality was ending the song.

“lucky styles” brings back the playful echoey guitars. They have fun exchanging small melodic motiffs. This one also feels lighter. It’s like I’m back at that circus from that first song but this time I’m not afraid, just happy to be there hanging out, admiring the weird stuff. “23 til infinity” returns to the darker vibe that suits this record more aptly. I hear a more direct, fast, chord progression meshing with a distorted, loud and unpredictable one, and good, albeit faded, vocal melodies. Everything ends abruptly, in a way that feels on brand for the kind of experience this record nurtured from start to finish.

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