album review: tiger choir, unicycles

My favourite Tasmanian export is Crown Princess Mary of Denmark. She married a prince, mastered another language and is a classy dresser to boot. Actually, until I learnt of Tiger Choir’s existence, I probably couldn’t have named another Tasmanian, so I was understandably curious about what a real Tasmanian band sounded like.

Tiger Choir’s debut album Unicycles showcases their electronic sound peppered with samples, while also utilising slightly whiny and slightly careless vocals. As an album it is short and upbeat. Unfortunately, it isn’t particularly memorable.

That being said, some songs are definitely better than others. The aptly titled instrumental track ‘Wordless’ is a pleasant blend of drums and synth, while the high-pitched vocals of ‘The Bell Curve’, coupled with samples of a male speaking, create the aural rise and fall you would expect given the imagery of the title. These two were my own particular favourites; it was hard to pick two, and not necessarily for good reasons. The album blends so much into itself. It is altogether too cohesive:  most of the songs are hard to pick out as separate entities, and combined they don’t produce anything spectacular. They do form a nice backdrop, and set a casual, calming mood, but I’d wager that ‘good  driving music’ probably wasn’t what Tiger Choir were aiming for.

Just because Tasmania is seemingly small doesn’t mean that there isn’t talent coming out of the island. By all appearances, Tiger Choir are a talented bunch; it just seems like they could be doing more with it. Unicycles is a pleasing, yet not altogether satisfying, album. Hopefully there’s more to come from this trio, as they clearly have much to work with.

Check out Tiger Choir’s tunes on Bandcamp!