Tune-Yards

Bird Brains

4AD

Merrill Garbus, the mastermind behind Tune Yards. Photo courtesy of 4AD.

In order to appreciate, tUne-yArDs’ (a solo act) debut LP BiRd-BrAiNs, you need to listen to the album a few times before you could really appreciate the scope of the dynamics involved. The album is intentionally lo-fi but inspired folk and contains a kaleidoscope of layers.

Merrill Garbus,  the mastermind behind this one woman act, recorded this album in the privacy of her home using a Sony digital voice recorder and shareware audio mixing software. Merrill’s artillery throughout the album expands from the ukulele, which sounds frightened and vulnerable at times, chugging beats, as if one were lost searching for something, awkward instrumentation, sampled loops that are sometimes played backwards, to anything that clanks or rattles.

Even more powerful than the array and arrangement of the instruments is Garbus’ soulful voice. At times it sounds like a haunting death rattle, at other times it’s playful with a sense of innocence, and still at other times her voice penetrates deep into the song like a siren with wings convincing the listener to pay close attention to the details. Any sense of pretentiousness is distilled when one hears the distorted yodeling or the earthy organic vibe invoked by opting to use simpler instruments

At once the opener intro track, utilizing a timid piano, backward looped strings and recordings of a child answering questions, is able to set the tone for the rest of the album. This album is intimate to it’s core and may conjure up memories of someone you used to know and wishes to crawl back in to your life by gently whispering in your ear.

Some of the best tracks on the album tend to creep up on you. The second track, “Sunlight,” is perhaps one of the best tracks on the album. It is a great example of how Garbus utilizes layering to make something very powerful and over-the-top out of a sincere plead, “I could be the sunlight in your eyes, couldn’t I?” The drumbeat is, for lack for a better term, sick, and as soon as those guitar strings kick in you find yourself doing the whole head-bop motion thing. Every time the chorus kicks in Garbus layers in another instrument, or a siren, fading in and out, as she croons, “Couldn’t I?”

“Lions,” the third track on the disc, is a sundry melody with a jagged feel to it. It is a tasteful contrast to the rest of the disc as it brings out the poignancy of her purr, which sounds like a folk singer from the middle of the past century rambling poetically about something dark and bluesy.

As the album progresses the listener begins to understand the emotion that can be conjured in one’s own living room by simply using a voice recorder. In the end you’ll find yourself hypnotized and completely sympathizing with her ominous undertones. The quality of the EP itself, which resembles a mix-tape cassette, lends itself to the mood and magnifies the feeling of a shameless and honest expression.

-Daniel Lopez Lopez