Tammar

Artist: Tammar
Title: Visits
Record Label: Suicide Squeeze
Rating: 5.8

Punk. Year Zero. The point where all extravagance in music was stripped away to leave a volatile and raw shell. As expected, Punk destroyed itself but from its burning embers the essence of punk lives on. Drawing influences from electronica and dub, as well as outside the music world, Post Punk made the most of the blank canvas, its prototype genre provided.

Tammar, the Indiana Based five piece, are the distilled example of Post Punk. The snarl is there to be heard from Dave Walter’s slurred vocal, along with the low slung throbbing bass, acting like the beating heart of the band’s hypnotic sound. Tammar have produced a record fit for the heady days of the late 1970s.

Visits, the band’s debut LP, is a frustrating record, as the majority of the tracks merge into one long dirge. Opening track, ‘Heavy Tonight’, sets the standard with Walter’s vocal which is an indiscernible din against the whirlpool of bass, drums and guitar. ‘Heavy Tonight’ lays the foundations for the remaining seven tracks, however there are moments were Visit breaks from its languid hum.

‘Summer Fun’ acts like a beam of sunlight breaking through the clouds of Visits’ overcasts skies. An intricate guitar riff coupled with a galloping drum beat brings things to life; however this is soon dampened with another dose of droning heavy vocals.

This is a common theme throughout Visits, just when you think the album will roar into life, it remains in a suspended state of lethargy.

Words and Thoughts of Adam Williams