ATTN:Magazine | Not from concentrate.

This album (hereby referred to as TPCatTTAC) is at first listen, an almost discombobulating collection of ideas. To a passive listener, the songs on the first and eponymous album may appear to just be the shit that stuck on the wall. And while it is true that each track seems to come from a different place entirely, it’s after a few listens that recurring themes appear and the album as a whole flows as naturally as any.

Influences seem to be worn on sleeves here – and big ones at that. Neutral Milk Hotel’s love for rootsy instrumentation is obviously shared, as it Broken Social Scene’s adeptness at crafting tender noise-pop. But don’t get into your heads that this is some mere fanboy record. At no point does TPCatTTAC seem any less than the sum of its influences. More that it appears to digress from track to track; different gasses bubbling to the surface of the same muddy pool of soft, soothing electronics, organ washes, organic sounds and mumbled vocals.

Opener “A Sea in a Shell” takes all the ideas of the nu-folk scene (spits on floor), i.e. nylon strings and a glock, but subverts them with subtle studio hiss and modulated vocals. “Hidden Tapes” really is the black sheep on the whole record; a spiky New Waver that is just about pulled off, yet never matches up to the lustre of the other tracks.

“Descent from Animals” is where everything gets into stride, and is never broken. It is at once the epitome of an epic juggernaut of a song, and yet also its antithesis. Pounding rhythms and a droning organ are offset by the softest of vocals.

“Love Times Eight” and “Lion Lion” are by far the stand out tracks. Two wedges of pop loveliness rising from the murk. The rest of the album slithers through in a more avant-pop fashion, with the now signature organ and squeezebox recurring as a leitmotif to the overall texture.

TPCatTTAC is, then, an album for wet weather days. To sit inside and cotton wool the ears with sounds of simple hope.