Artist: Tumido
Label: Interstellar Records
Release: 2011
Length: 30:47
Rating: 3.6/5
Like I said: just ten years of active service is plenty to build a sense of a distinctive identity, win over a fanatical following and develop a settled way of working. For the Viennese demolition duo of bizarre musical textures – the unconventional drum’n’bass derivative Tumido – that’s all front and center and honed to the bone, though not necessarily embraced or battle-tested on a global scale. This time, after the 2008 album Orgy, the duo of Bernhard Breuer (better known in underground circles for his work in Malycee and Elektro Guzzi) and Gigi Gratt present themselves with the provocative record Hunde – their third, let’s call it, full-length release.
You can listen to the track Hunde HERE.
A record that looks short on paper, with just two tracks, soon turns out to be a pretty grueling listen, because these two destroyers set out to mangle practically every last brain cell in your skull with a mix of experimental noise, the aforementioned drum’n’bass and hog-thick layers of artistic arrogance. First to take you apart is the title track Hunde, which needs 14 minutes to build a truly noisy backdrop of cacophonous rhythms, articulated screaming and a fat, distorted, effects-drenched bass. Tumido build on structural monumentality slowly and with a feel that only the cream of independent musicians can afford, the ones who couldn’t care less how many copies they sell. They describe themselves as children/thrash/tropical, but labels are totally pointless, because the end result is a full-on violation of your ears, and in a spray of noise they marinate your brain thoroughly, right up to the point where you’ll barely be holding back the shit and piss. Let’s say the main body of the music is rock-backed, but this time that component is distinctly, expertly noise. Add a pinch of jazz, as if written by the Vogons, to the ballast of junk, and the almost cosmic tectonics and atmosphere guarantee that the duo can calmly hang a “Warning! Avant-garde!” sign around their necks. This avant-garde is really only recommended for those with nerves and stomachs of steel, and I strongly advise against taking any psychogenic substances while listening, because you’ll feel like you’re being torn apart by a pack of hellhounds while the guardian of Hades himself, three-headed Cerberus, goes at you rectally. The second act is the track Potop, which, to be honest, kicks off its rhythmic dance of summoning every torment of hell with a sound that’s closest to a transatlantic liner going under, a sound that would document giant structures crumbling under pressure on the way to the very bottom of the Mariana Trench. There’s still no shortage of groove, though. The trumpets hit hard with their minimalist two-note pressure on your nerve endings, while the whole thing is dominated by dribbling rhythms, a thickly padded bass and electronic extras. And after a 16-minute massage, believe it or not, the story closes into a loop that will, I’m sure, leave you in a total fog.
Which is precisely why it’s almost unbelievable that you’ll probably come back to this record – at least if you consider yourself a brave music enthusiast who enthusiastically embraces every experiment and bit of sound play. If this kind of polished musical torture is your thing, after listening to this record you’ll light up a smoke with a smile on your face, wipe the sweat off your cheeks like after every good fuck and masochistically hit the button for another excursion through the spheres of the unknown.
Lineup
Gigi Gratt – bass, trumpet
Bernhard Breuer – drums, noisecymbal
Production
Alexander Jöchtl & Tumido
Tracklist
1. Hunde
2. Potop
