On this debut full-length release, Brooklyn-based duo TMBOY sounds like a reincarnation of the highly eccentric defunct Swedish electronic music duo The Knife. Now, anyone who is familiar with The Knife, would agree that imitating this group is literally impossible because of how unique their music is. Their musical and vocal capability is required to create anything that has their DNA in it. While Steam<\/i> has some obvious resemblances to The Knife, it does not mean that TMBOY is imitators. On the contrary, this comparison is a compliment to what Sarah Aument and Will Shore have accomplished here.<\/p>\n
Steam<\/i> is a hard-driving electronic music record with mean synths and high energy. \u201cHeld Under\u201d and \u201cFocus\u201d are powerful electro-pop tunes, superbly combining pop music catchiness with aggressive synthesizer sounds. On the experimental side, the complex and cool percussions predominant throughout the album \u2013 especially on \u201cHands,\u201d \u201cSubmarine,\u201d and \u201cNo One\u201d \u2013seem like amplified sounds from hitting pots and pans. They add a naturalistic touch to the robotic synth music (a move, straight out of The Knife playbook, which the duo executes beautifully!).<\/p>\n
Between the quirkiness of Shore\u2019s percussions and Aument\u2019s vocals, there is an undeniable earthy feel looming over the album\u2019s chic electro numbers. \u201cZephyr\u201d is a shining example of this, with its earthiness even spilling onto its lyrics: \u201cFeet in the soil \/ We\u2019re running together \/ Skin, wind and grain.\u201d Aument\u2019s playful yet powerful vocals and singing style has a lot in common with The Knife\u2019s Karin Dreijer. Her peculiar singing with a childlike innocence is unusual, but perfect for this disc\u2019s unconventional compositions.<\/p>\n
Steam<\/i> has enough stylistic similarities to warrant comparison with The Knife, one of the most groundbreaking but strange electronic bands ever. However, TMBOY\u2019s sharp pop music awareness makes it very clear that Aument and Shore are here to forge their own path. This release is not as weird as any Knife record, and it certainly doesn\u2019t aspire to be like one either.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":33706,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[10309],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-45527","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-tmboy","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45527"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}