Over a year ago we wrote about the debut singles from Norwegian / English duo 'Tuvaband'. They'd released the tracks 'Unknown' and 'Running', and immediately I was totally captivated by what I described at the time as 'lo-fi' dreamy sounds, and the lovely vocals from Tuva Hellum Marschhäuser. But I also wrote that only time would tell whether they would be able to maintain the intensity they'd created through these songs on longer format releases, and I'm delighted to be able to tell you that in their EP 'Mess' they do exactly that.
So a very quick reminder, they're a duo consisting of Tuva Hellum Marschhäuser and Simon Would, and they've made real progress in the last year, with pretty much universal praise from everyone who's covered them, gigs at JaJaJa Berlin and coverage in the last week from websites such as 'The Revue', which I respect so much.
'Mess' is simply beautiful, you really need to just turn the lights down, stream the music through as many speakers as you can muster, and let it envelop every corner of your house or apartment. It opens with the title track 'Mess', and the startling thing about their music still is just how much emotional intensity that they're able to create through so few instruments - an intricate guitar opens and immediately the vocals are added, these fragile melancholy vocals that have such power, and such beauty too. In 'Eventually Silence' the melancholy turns darker still, with lyrics which slightly disturb, whilst pre-EP release 'Trees' which we wrote about last month has a beauty and power that I still love.
'She's Nothing Like a Child' has the most incredible lyrics, telling of the lost children of our generation, ''She used to swim and play games with the waves, but now her summer body's function is to lie down to get some tan', the song is totally compelling, and left me searching immediately to track down the lyrics. 'Outro' completes the EP (there's a digital bonus track called 'The Observer') with Marschhäuser repeating the refrain 'We're far away from the earth, but we cannot seem to get any wiser'.
I really love Tuvaband's music (as regulars will know, given this is about the 4th time we've featured them) with Simon Would's musical subtlety and Tuva Hellum Marschhäuser incredible vocals. But the success of 'Mess' is in the power of those collective tracks, the story that they tell, the way that the music and lyrics will totally consume you. This is just a huge success, and the good news is that it's out on Vinyl too, just in time for our Santa Christmas lists....