Tonstartssbandht – “What Has Happened”

After years spent cracking through the crust of noise pop Tonstartssbandht began to move in headier directions on their Mexican Summer LP Sorcerer in 2017. Even this contained a bit of a tether to their cruncher times as it began to spread out into more experimental waters, though. They’d been burning at the edges of my vision for a while, but It was actually their cover of The Rutles’s “Livin’ In Hope,” on the Mex Sum anniversary comp that came out the following year, that really caught my ear for them in a new way. The band seems to have taken that one-off to heart and they’re pushing in a much more laconic direction with their upcoming album. The first single “What Has Happened” is a sun-streaked shot of blissful pop that skitters along on a brushed beat and an undulating rhythm. It’s a more lived in sound than the brothers have presented previously and that might be in part due to it being the first one that brothers Andy and Edwin White recorded in a more concentrated fashion, eschewing their usual remote rapport. Mixing lush ‘60s vocals with the more austere impulses of German Progressives, the band seems to find a point in the air somewhere between ‘70s post-hippie havens. The new record is out October 22nd from Mexican Summer.

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