I try not to get too personal about the business of reviewing schtufff but Already Dead Tapes are a patient bunch that never seem to stop tossing out tapes. And I’ve missed a bunch of their submissions, and they keep slangin’ ‘em my way regardless (much like Sophomore Lounge, much love) and that’s the sort of life affirmation I need every so often. Talk Midway, however, needs absolutely no charity from me, bathed as it is in the gentle art of instrumentation-as-songcraft, each cut telling a story even as it literally says nothing (yes, literally). You Wish Us Both In the Water playfully splashes around waterlogged acoustic guitar riffs and misty found-sound moments at first, to stunning effect, then segues into a solo guitar motif, backed by a soothing synth-dro varietal, smooth as in-season berries with just a flutter of disorientation when it drops into yr ear-belly. As a huge fan of Come On Die Young I get a little emotional when simple guitarpeggios (trademarked-by-Ricky-Bobby-Inc.) sail into the stratosphere, and as to WHY I’ll never be quite sure. Does it matter? Talk Midway’s riffs, while not quite CODY material (give ‘em time), evoke a similar quiet cool, in no rush to prove anything to anyone despite the obvious craft that went into their creation. You Wish Us Both In the Water reminds me most of Pregnant (aka Daniel Trudeau), a solo venture on now-defunct Life’s Blood Recs that was a lot more upbeat but blessed with a parallel obsession with delicate acoustics. Also, Blithe Field, if you know of that remarkably underappreciated solo act of Spencer Radcliffe. That’s all I got, as this tape is already presumed dead (though you can exhume it over at the AD site); definitely seek out a copy no matter how crowded your cassette budget has become.
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