ALBUM REVIEW: Breathe – Tayne

TAYNE is something of an enigma. The London-based experimental noise outfit release their debut Breathe, an expression of anxiety, hopes and mental health struggles. Their industrial sound is fused with synthwave and chiptune, balancing an undercurrent of post rock. Is the possibility of attaining clarity achievable, or will this album surpass categorisation and be heralded as a record with something new to day?

Title track Breathe is a well-built intro, short and sweet and packing a punch. With a growing pulse that tingles with symbols, an uncomfortable vocal that jitters like a stuck record, the growling strings and screaming vocal give you an intense burst of energy. It’s a warning for what’s in store, and from this intro alone, you’d better hold on to your seats. Haunted has a menacingly low tone, with plodding building synthetic current. Dark tones and drawn out vocals leave the feeling of unease to build just enough before the beat picks up and a wave of flurrying chiptune and guitars washes over you. It’s a great mixture of old school 80s aesthetics with fresh and innovative ideas to pull the mood of happiness and torment into an audible context.

Heartbeat begins like an arcade game; a cycle of interesting sounds melds into the melody. A heartbeat throbs in the centre of this mix of Matthew Suttons’ vocal, themselves a synthesised ripple in the intermingling of sounds. Not quite synthwave, but taking the very essence of what makes the genre so popular, Heartbeat incorporates thundering drums and guitars as an equal counterpart to the digital effects that lace this unusual soundscape. The single Sacrifice takes that trademark vocal style, and ups the lighter tones of TAYNE’s inclinations, resulting in the synthwave melody beating warm and glowing into your soul. An instant hook, the intricacies and details can be found on repeat listens, like looking in the nooks and crannies of ocean reefs; else, you can submerge yourself in the overwhelming enormity of it all and allow yourself to become lost in its emotional depths.

Interlude A_Lie is another quick and pleasant musical moment. It’s dip into a more techno inspired musing like that of MOBY, pulling from the nineties or early noughties. It’s a blink and you’ll miss it moment, but not without merit in its own right.

A stonking bassline signals we’re arrived at Alive, a menacing lyrical performance echoes the sentiments of NEW ORDER and TEARS FOR FEARS, only in a much darker way. The music itself feels like a strange dream, with the catchy bassline being your central line and the shifting, unusual slide of the ambience and melodic changes confusing and delighting at the same time. The breakdown is a shot between madness and sublime, it’s a current into another dimension. Those that truly connect to this music will be utterly lost in reverence of it.

A sinister bouncing tone grates as something dark clashes against the darkness in Open Up. So much of TAYNE‘s music plays with the balance and unbalancing of highs and lows. It’s incredibly dark in the same likeness as APHEX TWIN, but with much more subtlety and mystery. The moments of bliss, where the fuzz of the synth really emotes positivity and hope, as droning singing channels something darker balance the digital gnashing and discordant beats are sprinkled with shiny pop flutters. The droning end and hollow alarm bleed into Figuite It Out.

As the last song fades, a ringing piano lowers the pace, an acoustic giant in this sea of synthetic sounds and spaces, the beat flickering from resting heartbeat to electronic metronome. The scale of this track is better experienced than described, crying guitars distant in the wash of hypnotic voices and indistinguishable ambience. The shimmering outro is a beautiful moment that barely lingers as the nostalgic 8-bit roots of Gone take over. TAYNE proves on this record that this shorter work is just as effective and diverse as his longer pieces, as this minute and a half moment paints just as colourful a picture as any other track on this album. Magical and haunting, it’s a spellbinding prelude to the end of the record. Storms allows its guitars to take some minor control back over the heavy weight of cyclical beats and keys, as a wall of sound, piece by piece collects into a melody of pretty impressive scale. The masterful ascension and descent from light tones to thick, bursting phrases of music concludes as a powerful end to this one of a kind experience.

TAYNE has created an album in Breathe that defies labels, but rather embodies the true emotions of one mans soul. The haunting nature of the music, the sway between the light and dark is incredibly emotive. From bleak and menacing, erratic and lost, to hopeful and awe inspiring, the continuous overlap and cycle of tones is a beautiful representation the human psyche. TAYNE’s complexities are a true achievement here.

Rating: 8/10

Breathe is out now via Strange Brew Records.

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