Tuning - Brudnell Social Club Leeds - 12/10/07

by Ben Rackstraw | October 11th, 2007

On tour with the material from their third album Good Arrows, electronic-folksters Tunng will arrive at the fantastically intimate Brudenell Social Club on Thursday. With gigs reportedly more like communal music sessions than concerts this promises to provide an evening out to warm the soul. The reputation for inclusive gigging is perhaps a result of the band’s genesis; back in 2003 Tunng was made up of only two members, singer-songwriter Sam Genders and electronica artist Mike Lindsay, but it quickly swelled to include four more members for live performances, who eventually became full-time members of the band.

The music reflects this easy collaborative spirit, where beautifully folky songs are spliced by electronic stabs, or swaddled by sampled clicks, whirs and slips. Running through the core of most of their material is a male/female harmony that promises to be even more prettily woozy live than it is on record.

All of this is provided in a distinctly English package, invoking little touches like the sampled fragment of conversation on ‘Bricks’, “I’m going to come up and put the kettle on while she’s doing that”, the perfect analogy for a band who are as warm as a nice cuppa, but don’t fail to provide the excitement of musical caffeine.