Tunng, Fergus Brown @ OxfordArts Factory, Sydney(19/02/11)

Mon 28th Feb, 2011 in Gig Reviews

Tunng have grown from an eccentric folk group that filled in the various cracks and crevices in their sound with soft focus electronics to a more focused, arguably less eccentric indie band. These days they seem content with delivering broader tunes more palatable to the casual listener, but they’ve lost none of their bookish charm that made them popular to begin with.

Supporting them on Saturday was rising Sydney songwriter Fergus Brown. His is a fairly familiar style of soft guitar pop, crafting inoffensive ballads reminiscent of the quiet moments of early 2000s indie products like the Shins, the Magnetic Fields or anyone off a Scrubs soundtrack. What saved it was his obvious commitment and earnest belief in that particular sound, and he milked every little sighing moment from every softly strummed minor chord. There were moments when they slowed it down that sounded uncannily like Alan Sparhawk’s legendary Low outfit, and I was impressed at the lovely melancholy pools and eddies of sound they produced during such instances. Unfortunately there was only a few of them, and the rest just didn’t have enough texture or variation to really linger past the final chord. A valiant attempt was made in the form of a squeaky plastic hamburger chew toy.

Tuung are an odd collective to watch. The barefooted percussionists and electronic sketch artists Phil Winter and Martin Smith enjoyed a fare degree of freedom whilst still observing a folky kind of syntax, while Becky Jacob’s vaguely stoic presence was punctuated by sudden spasms of rhythm and theatricality. Mike Lindsay cherry picked from a number of stage personalities, from glam rock to torch singer. The show was a pretty neat showcase of mercurial songwriting and musical doodling, but never became self absorbed. In fact what resulted was a positive, inclusive experience that reveled in its pastoral folk roots more than its experimental electronic patronage.

Their fourth album …And Then We Saw Land didn’t enjoy as much praise as previous efforts, if only for its more pedestrian and relatively generic approach, but this broader brush doesn’t necessarily translate to a blasé show. Songs like Weekend Getaway and The Roadside really blossomed and Don’t Look Down or Back revealed dynamism more akin to late 90s Britpop than these folk futurists.

The chimerical nature of Tunng allows them a freedom of expression greater than that of more straightforward outfits (like the support), and their sepia toned bookworm musical aesthetic is immeasurably charming and listenable. The show last Saturday was a welcome antidote to the heavy handed irony and self awareness of so many post modern bands try so hard to achieve. These guys were accidentally post modern – before it was cool.