Te’ - Therefore The Illusion Of Density Breach, The Tottering World ‘Forget’ Tomorrow (Album Review
Tuesday, 20 November 2012
Written by Ben Bland
Te’ are a nightmare for reviewers, and grammar freaks, in many ways. As if the album title (translated from its original 'ゆえに、密度の幻想は綻び、蹌踉めく世界は明日を『忘却』す。') wasn’t long enough, the Japanese math/post-rock band have made this record full of song names that are even longer; my personal favourite being the catchy 'Having fun at the boundary of the continuous and the discontinuous, the thread of life "sacrifice" a plaything'. Dodgy grammar aside, how seriously one is supposed to take their Red Sparowes on overdrive obsession with length titles is a moot point, but what is not is the seriously kickass nature of this record and the band that has created it.
Japanese post-rock will always be best associated with Mono but, with the elder statesmen (and women) having dropped a bit of a snoozefest this year with the overdeveloped 'For My Parents', Te’ will come as a refreshing change for all. More in line with the likes of And So I Watch You From Afar, Maybeshewill and fellow countrymen Toe than Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Te’ are not ones to hold back. The use of the word ‘kickass’ earlier may have been tongue in cheek but, in all seriousness, Te’ really are such fun to listen to at points that it may actually function as a perfect descriptor. Whilst Te’ are excellent creators of atmospheric instrumental rock music, they really are at their best when they put their foot down and charge at the listener like raging wildebeest recently freed from a particularly lonesome spell in captivity.
Opener 'The pleasure of life is the "inoculation" of death and the raw power with which we walk to the end' bursts out of the traps with the sort of riff that flattens hills with alarming ease, before lulling listeners back into a false sense of security with some delightfully harmonic interplays and then proceeding to bulldoze your house just as you have gone to put the kettle on. All this happens in about three and a half minutes. This theme remains similar as the record progresses but to dwell on this would be churlish in the extreme. Te’ are far from original in their ideas, or in the way they execute them, but the style and panache they exude puts them up there with the very best in the genre. This is the sort of instrumental guitar music that keeps the post-rock genre surprisingly vibrant after all these years.
By turns frantic and beautiful, on this, their first album to be released in the UK, Te’ are something of a lively post-rock lover’s wet dream. Texturally masterful, technically proficient and capable of wielding enough brilliant riffs to make most other bands turn crimson with jealousy, this Japanese foursome have unexpectedly revived the fortunes of one of the most uneventful years for instrumental rock music in some time. What a lovely surprise.
'Therefore the Illusion of Density Breach, the Tottering World ‘Forget’ Tomorrow' is out now via Zanyo UK. Go and buy it so that Te’ can come to these shores and rock our stages to oblivion.
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Japanese post-rock will always be best associated with Mono but, with the elder statesmen (and women) having dropped a bit of a snoozefest this year with the overdeveloped 'For My Parents', Te’ will come as a refreshing change for all. More in line with the likes of And So I Watch You From Afar, Maybeshewill and fellow countrymen Toe than Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Te’ are not ones to hold back. The use of the word ‘kickass’ earlier may have been tongue in cheek but, in all seriousness, Te’ really are such fun to listen to at points that it may actually function as a perfect descriptor. Whilst Te’ are excellent creators of atmospheric instrumental rock music, they really are at their best when they put their foot down and charge at the listener like raging wildebeest recently freed from a particularly lonesome spell in captivity.
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