(((O))) : Tangled Thoughts of Leaving – No Tether

Sometimes an album or tune or song will feel like a particular animal. A swimming fish, a soaring eagle, a contented cat curled up on the seat you want to sit on. No Tether, the latest release from Western Australia’s Tangled Thoughts of Leaving is so much more. It’s a walk through a series of environments each with its own eco system. It’s not just one animal, it’s a whole food chain, and more than that it’s the vegetation, the earth, the sky, the climate. Each tune is a documentary, or perhaps a live feed, following life in a desert, or a waterhole, or a jungle, or a city. There’s life, there’s death, there’s sadness, there’s anxiety, there’s tension, conflict, melancholy, joy, fear and despair. This is Tangled at their best.

As a fourteen year old I remember lying in bed listening to ABC FM radio (commercial FM didn’t even exist here back in 1979), and hearing Jean-Michel Jarre’s ‘Équinoxe‘ for the first time. I was thoroughly mesmerised, and it’s a place I was transported back to about 90 seconds after pressing play on No Tether. The ‘70s synth signals further expansion of their sound before arpeggios provide a familiar, if not signature, chaotic link to ‘The Alarmist’. It’s an all-in, pulsating attack on the ear drums that dissolves to a writhing mass before sliding into twenty minutes of ambient drone over the next two tracks. This drone is overlayed with a range of short, deliberate phrases from each of the four band members, displaying their deep and effortless capacity to sound free-flowing and free-form while ticking along as precisely as a Swiss watch.

‘Binary Collapse’ sees piano and guitar face off in the most melodic part of the album as bass and drums provide a backdrop, while the title, closing track is the most experimental and chaotic, with its capricious climax.

No Tether doesn’t always go where you anticipate, more so than in previous releases, trading soaring riffs and longer melodies for a more primal, angular and spasmodic approach. Yet there’s always that steady flow behind, even when drowned out with cacophony. You get so used to it that you feel it when it’s not even there, just as your mind closes a circle that’s cut in half by the edge of a photo.

Call it progressive rock, call it avant-garde, jazz, doom or whatever, who really cares. It’s a whole lot of brilliance. ‘Signal Erosion’ is my favourite of the places we visit on this musical tour, with its blend of lullaby and shock therapy as it burrows its way into your head. Importantly it shows that Tangled Thoughts of Leaving have continued to evolve and experiment and learn without losing the essence of what made their previous releases so significant and has earned them the admiration of their peers.

I simply cannot wait to see these tunes played live.