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We start by saying we feel pretty bad about this release given we’ve had it for a few months now. Once of those releases that has somehow managed to duck and dive it way on and off the hi-fi. So apologies to Tulipomania. And for those probably sitting their straining their eyes to read this and thinking to themselves that maybe the reason why it never got a straight of the cuff before the sleeve ink had time to dry appraisal had something to do with its quality - think again.
Now it seems trimmed to a trio, this Pennsylvania based collective of art and film makers first appeared on our radar several years ago via a magazine compilation (’Copper Press’ was the magazine if you must know). A self released and self titled debut full length followed , fondly lapped up by our hi-fi and marked out aside the growing tide of post punk renegades with ’the’ prefixing their names for its strangely addictive mid 80’s 4AD styled filmic funk.
Several years on the 12 track follow up ‘anamorphic’ arrives. As previously the process is still the same, Tulipomania occupy a curious melodic cosmic divide where the Happy Mondays floor throbbing grooves are dispatched through an uber chilled lens directed as were by a mid 80’s 4AD dream team. ‘Anamorphiic’ remains radiantly blessed with that strangely addictive low pulse filmic funk that appears now to be their trademark communication. Skirting around the shadows of the indie dance floor like a hesitant wallflower, this second full length reveals a honed and tightened mindset within the Tulipomania camp, resourceful and intimate, it imparts a slick retro moodist quality to the proceedings, the cuts seamlessly blend and bleed into each other giving a sense of an uninterrupted flow with only the acutely anxious peek a boo treatments applied to ‘draw pictures’ breaking the ranks to usher in a decidedly sea sickly charm with its fractured and eerily creepy and dislocated carnival / fairground motifs.
From the softly crystalline chime corteges of ‘Anyway’ with its chilled 60’s side winding paisley pop pirouettes and haunting harmonies glazed with a shimmer shrilled Pixies-esque presence to the dust wrapped hazes of the subtly exotic desert mirages of the sultry and snake charming ‘take a ride’ - there’s no denying that Tulipomania’s craft deserves a degree of patience in order for you to acclimatise. Not for them is it the throb of post punk art pop impetuousness. Instead their melodies swirl playfully assuming a longing artistry that doesn’t translate immediately, amid the tender and lingering vague dream pop dialects there’s a caressing beauty at work behind the scene - this is borne out by the albums duel centrepieces - ‘October’ and ‘tonight’. The former smoulders softly and cutely nibbles away at the coda from Robert Plant’s early 80’s hit ‘big log’ and could by rights - equipped with a suitably attention grabbing video that brings forth its mid 80’s drive time MOR amour - do a fair amount of damage on the various visual mediums around today from MTV to you tube and beyond. The latter (‘Tonight’) is framed pristinely with a dream weaving bleakly beautiful and fractured elegance that with an understanding producer at the controls could tweak and nail to the floor a gem in the making.
Elsewhere the sumptuously lazy eyed ‘the bum’ is so laid back its horizontal - deliciously weighted with an idly casual strum and an inebriated sluggish delivery that assumes a tenaciously hazy thrift store decadence while ‘swirl’ sees the trio still thumbing and courting their prized Gene Loves Jezebel records. That not forgetting the stunningly abrupt soul / white funk hybrid ‘no let up’ and the jerky and jaunty bass heavy fractured funk ferocity of the opening salvo ‘same old scene’ with its zig zagging grinds much reminiscent of Killing Joke off spring Brilliant - classy or what?
The album can be downloaded for free for a limited time only via www.sursumcorda.com/tulipomania
www.tulipomania.com
Key tracks -
October
Take a ride
Tonight
MARK BARTON
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