TUNNG

Love You All Over Again (Full Time Hobby)

Returning to the English trad and folk-rock roots of their earlier work, folktronica trailblazers Tunng have released their eighth studio album. It is good to hear them back in the soundworld of the early 00s, playing with skittering, fractured rhythms and beautifully bucolic guitar figures. The opening Everything Else, and other instrumental vignettes that mark the beginning, middle and end of the album, are as reminiscent of the glitching electronics of Björk’s Vespertine as much as they are of Bert Jansch or John Renbourn’s work with Pentangle.

But there isn’t much to cling on to as the album meanders nicely from track to track. It’s not until track five, Laundry, that anything surprising happens to really engage the listener. You could argue that this is music that washes over you and takes you to a different place; if that’s true, then Levitate A Little is the standout beauty, and a song that best achieves that state.

words JOHN-PAUL DAVIES