GHETTO BEATS ON THE SURFACE OF THE SUN

Released in 07, this double disc album actually dates from 04-05, this superbly-titled (a bit misleading intentionally to trick rappers into buying it) is certainly once again proving that Tarentel is on the forefront of Post Rock, running alongside Tortoise, light years ahead of the rest of the pack, the GYBE! imitators. Actually these two groups are so far away from their peers, that calling them Post Rock has become reductive and misleading: indeed Tort and Tare have almost invented the style by themselves in the mid-90's, but the huge production of EITS or Mogwai and even Sigur Ros trying for that Constellation Record label sound since has rendered the Post Rock image precisely that of Constellation. Don't get me wrong, I'm not blaming it on the Montreal-based label, but well on the hundreds of imitators that have copied that sound since.

The two disc are relatively similar (the second being a little less "melodic" or a little more dissonant), carrying us through a bunch of sound collages and ambiances that often borders the nightmarish rather than the erotic wet dream. Musically we are somewhere between 03's stupendous We Move through Weather and 05's Big Black Square and Paper White, but unlike these releases, we're faced with a bunch of tracks (10 on the first and 13 on the second disc) on both albums rather than long tracks, but generally the musical propos is roughly the same as those albums nearing it. A continuous tapestry of sounds (the tracks are melted into each other) that sometimes is close to making perfect sense and has an eerie beauty, despite its gloom and doom; and at others sounds like a volcano in eruption its spewing loud blobs of lava and spilling its bile-like magma into your living room. Early Tangerine Dream like Zeit, Atem, Phaedra and Alpha Centauri soundscapes are not far away from this Tarentel release

As usual, and like most Tarentel albums, Ghetto Beats is simply not for the faint-hearted or those Post Rockers looking for their usual stuff. On the whole, unless a bit masochistic I don't think you'll be playing both discs in one sitting and once the novelty worn off, this type of album will probably not find regular rotation and eventually get pushed to a corner of the shelves where gathering dust will be its main occupation until you'll remember it and play it once and starting the vicious circle again. But it's definitely worth an ear.

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