TUNA LAGUNA

The opener is "My Lunar Boots", which interposes different melodic sections to build a very inetersting track that moves between a catchy melody and strong and complex rock sections which reminds me some Gastr del Sol albums. Into my favorites of this album, got to pick "Tidal Eddies" because the strong rhythmical base and the attmept to mix some "classic" post rock wirh psychedelic elements in a weird experiment that really works!

"Arrival of the Rhino" it's maybe the more hard, dark and metal-ish song of the album but doesn't lose the post rock base that build a solid and hard rhythmical base. "The Insignificant Grape" is a kind of pause at the middle of the album, a quiet and floating instrumental which leads to another great song of the album: "Feather Beats" another track that reminds me some Gastr del Sol and Tortoise early stuff but TL add their own an particular ingredients to turn that song into a really funny musical journey.

The album closes with another two great pieces: "Barry on Safari" and "That's Where We're at". Both songs has the mentioned elements and gives a real good ending to this underrated album that deserves to be into the colection of every average post rock fan... 4*

"Judy Loop" begins with some noisy sounds before launching into a perky, eclectic instrumental that sounds like a cross between Anglagard and classic surf rock. The track sticks with this motif for about two minutes before moving into a slightly more atmospheric mode that sounds like someone took the eclectic sounds of latter day Talk Talk and had Kraftwerk rearrange them. If that sounds compelling, it is: "Judy Loop" combines elements of electronica, old-school progressive rock and plenty of strange textures to create a winsome little number that can't help coming off as anything but charming. It's this charm that allows the song to succeed so well over its 7 minute run-time despite making use of the same couple of melodic patterns over and over. Tuna Laguna seems to have figured out something that many groups struggle with: you can still make good music (and furthermore good progressive rock) even if you're not switching and adding themes every other second.

Another reviewer mentioned that "Lady Mongolia" had similarities to Camel; I can certainly hear that, however, for me the strongest influence that comes through is actually early Zappa. I'm not sure why, exactly, but something about the rhythms used just sounds to me to be highly reminiscent of certain parts of "We're Only In It For The Money." However, the lack of lyrics and dreamier sound leaves "Lady Mongolia" sounding, more than anything else, original. It's also very relaxing; despite having a much more technical sound than Pink Floyd they possess a similar ability to transport the listener to another place (which in this case could very well be the beach on the album's cover). The track concludes with the same sort of noisy sounds that began "Judy Loop" and help facilitate the transition to the next track.

"One Who Brings Joy" is a bit more languid than either of the first two tracks, and as a result the vibe it gives off is just as carefree and relaxing if not more so. With great rhythmic interplay between guitar and keyboard and some jazzy percussion, "One Who Brings Joy" feels far less tightly wound than the tracks preceding it, but it's certainly not all atmosphere. There are some very solid melodies that develop over the course of the track, and as with "Judy Loop" and "Lady Mongolia" the band shows an incredible amount of sophistication in developing them through repetition rather than merely throwing thousands of different notes at the listener. The track again closes out with some noisy sound effects, and it's at this point that the continuity in endings between the tracks really begins to give the album a nice sense of wholeness.

"Drink What I Drink (I Drank Judy's Drink)" returns to the perky, idiosyncratically rhythmic style of the first two tracks. With some almost funky melodic lines and a very jazzy feel, "Drink What I Drink" is also one of the more varied tracks, delving into a variety of themes and sounds. Unfortunately, the result is that the track doesn't come off as strongly as any of the first three tracks, having lost some of the sophistication in development in favor of a sound that occasionally comes off as more disjointed. "Drink What I Drink" is still a fine track, however, and one that certainly doesn't detract from the album as a whole.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for "Rhömcke Raff." While nothing about it is actively bad, it sounds far too similar to the tracks that precede it and as a result comes off as startlingly unmemorable compared to the fresh brilliance of the first few tracks. It also doesn't really seem to go anywhere, with the repetition that was used so well in the first couple tracks coming off as dull and uninspired here. While there is an interesting distorted section towards the end, "Rhömcke Raff" overall just doesn't do enough to distinguish itself from the somewhat similar-sounding tracks it shares album space with, and as such it falls unfortunately flat as a closing track. Additionally, despite its 11 minute runtime the track proper only lasts about six; the rest of the time is filled with silence with only a brief, noisy, freak-out session at the very end. In my opinion, that's a rather unsatisfying ending for a release that began so compellingly.

Ultimately, then, It's A Fudge ends up being a mixed bag. I really do enjoy the first three tracks quite a lot, but the album peters off as it goes on, with "Drink What I Drink" being a little weak and "Rhömcke Raff" being more or less forgettable. I look forward to hearing Tuna Laguna's other work because they obviously have the capacity to put out some very good music, but that capacity does not seem to me to be fully realized on this short debut release.

3/5

I downloaded this EP, It's A Fudge, as a free download from the bands website not knowing what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprise. Lady Mongolia had me thinking of Camel, no not the animal, but the rather succesful band :-) I'm referring to their Mirage album.

'One Who Brings Joy' is rather moody 'While Drink What I Drink' reminds me of a Seventies TV show. It sounds rather funky or is that where the term fusion stems from? Its the final track, 'Rhömcke Raff' that caught my attention. I played it a number of times and must say I rather enjoy it.

Overall a fair collection of songs with Track 5 being the obvious winner here.3 Stars.

This 2003 EP (which at around 35 minutes is nearly a full album) forms our introduction to Norwegian Post Rock band Tuna Laguna. Here we have five extended tracks, running to around 6-7 minutes.

While labelling the band as post rock may be convenient, the simple fact is that those who come to the EP seeking the music of bands such as Explosions in the Sky may be disappointed. The opening "Judy loop" actually has far more in common with jazz fusion, the shuffling rhythm and dominant electric piano providing a smoothness not associated with the post rock genre. As the track develops, it moves towards Krautrock territories, with frantic fuzz guitar and a general looseness to the overall sound.

"Lady Mongolia" is even lighter, the overall lounge feel of the piece belying the underlying depth. Only in the latter half of the track do we find the heavier phonetic drumming associated with post rock. "One who brings joy" slows things down becoming more in line with what we know as Post Rock, but still devoid of the pounded guitars which tend to characterise that style. While competently performed, overall the track is too repetitive, monaural, and generally dull for my taste.

"Drink what I drink" reverts to the fusion style, with strong retro hints of bands such as Brand X. The wah-wah sounds and funky piano once again evidence a strong jazz orientation. The closing " Rhömcke Raff" is a case of more of the same, the track building from a sparse beginning with intrusive drumming via another loose jazz theme. Despite its apparent 11 minute length, the track fades after around 6 minutes due to the presence of a hidden track. This turns out to be a brief indulgence irrelevant to the rest of the album.

In all, a competent first release by the band, which offers the prospect of them developing into a fine collective. There is a certain naivety to the music here which needs to be kept firmly in check if Tuna Laguna are to establish a true identity for themselves.

This album is currently available for free download via the band's website.

Yep, I think that might suit the bill just fine. I'm not sure where to start, so let's force it: loops, loops, guitars, weird sounds, okay it's getting nowhere but I least I had a picture.

This thingie contains a solid amounts of analog keyboards (electric pianos and some mellow synths) but not sounding too vintage (except maybe in Drink What I Drink which is obviously influenced by WEATHER REPORT - thumbs up for that!). Apart from vintage keys, there's a huge amount of loops scattered all over the place, and they work fine: sometimes as bizarre and messy pattern slowly repeating and modulating itself, sometimes more conventional-sounding (guitars are occasionally looped, providing staccato patterns, which works within the story just fine). Drums are - well - drums are not too original (I never heard more than decent drumming in post rock genre so far), but they're not annoying or anything. On a place or two those drums are modulated with a heavy phaser, or delay effect inclining towards resonance - a nice effect when blended with other instruments, the palette is very good. The same goes for guitars - heavily processed (in a good way) and filtered, a slight reminiscence of RADIOHEAD here and there.

There's more, but the words won't do justice. Not because this album is so terribly good (it is not, it's just good), it is so simply because other, more detailed explanation will sink into the tech stuff more than actual impression that music evokes in me. Speaking of that, I have no complains; melodies, harmonies...nothing groundbreaking but...well, if you love post-rock, just take of it what you like and apply it here. See? This record is to be recommended! And to experience it, you simply have to tape these few letters on your keyboard: tunalaguna.com/fudge.html . It's free, and it's not a throwaway material. It's not the best music in the world (not even the best post-rock I experienced) but, to put it simply get it. It contains basis that could explode in 10 000 possible directions. This band is lucky, now they need to be clever...and soon we might have 5 Close To The Edge albums from these guys.

This one so far is worth three and a h...oh, whatta hell. Four stars.

The music is very trance-like and capturing at first, but after each song starts to go on for about 3 minutes you as a listener will start to succumb to the natural "when are they going to do something fresh!?!" type of boredom that comes from a band's first venture into an album. I'm not saying the album lacks originality, I'm saying that each song drains the originality from the album. Each song is a fresh and creative little breakthrough at first, until the freshness and creativity is completely sucked out playing the same melody over and again.

This is a very well recorded and produced album, and for an EP it is a pretty good little slice of music. However, if this were not available at no charge I doubt it would have the listeners it does, therefore it would never stand up to any successful albums, let alone EP's.

I encourage everyone to download this EP from that link and at least give this band a listen, it may be your thing or it may not be, however it is fairly fresh and original even if they do cross the line into boredom. 3 stars.

What do you think about Post-Rock? Dark music, played by acoustic instruments, long melancholic tracks with layered guitars and lengthy climaxes, blah-blah-blah…TUNA LAGUNA is nothing short of anything like it. If Post-Rock has drawn it’s main influence from Indie Rock, TL did that with fusion and Canterbury scene music. Post-Canterbury? You bet! Another attempt to describe band’s stuff could be this: if acid-jazz, there should be acid-fusion. Or acid dub-Canterbury. Or post-funk. No, I ain’t on acid myself now :)

TUNA LAGUNA have their unique sound – sometimes they sound like a James Bond score, with all these vibrato guitars and analogue organs, but background is usually powerful rhythm-section, almost electronic-sounding, as if taken directly from RED SNAPPER or 65DAYSOFSTATIC. Got the mixture? Add hella catchy melodies as well and a huge dose of humour and take away darkness, long tracks and other Post-Rock clichés. This is quite another thing, dude. Another beautiful thing concerning TL is they have plenty of tracks available for free download (on their LastFM page, for instance), like brilliant “My Lunar Boots”, and this opportunity would speak better than me about their music. Despite some mainstream/easy-listening approach, this groovy stuff deserves to be listened and appreciated. Highly recommended.