Cream Cuts

About

Now that drum ’n’ bass, electronic and trance music have become part of the common nightclub soundscape, hearing bands like Tussle on the dance floor is not terribly rare; but seeing these San Francisco performers live is practically an out-of-body experience, and something you need to do if you like their recordings. The beauty of this particular group of instrumentalists is that they know how to temper synthesized sounds with warm, organic tones of a live, deeply grounded bass, layers of real percussion instruments (usually two drum kits), and a seriously dubby pulse; their music sounds like nothing else. There are heady, propulsive backbeat explorations (“Meh-Teh,” “Night of the Hunter”), kinetic tribal-dirges (“Titan”), loping, echoey, electronica rides (“Transparent C”), and affectionate Krautrock moments (“Abacba” starts off with a simple “Psycho Killer” bass line then surges into a motorik groove). “Rainbow Claw” even ends up giving some love to clanging, woozy, post-punk. Tussle certainly knows its roots: at times, the minimal, deep funk grooves even remind one of the late ‘70s P-funk of New York’s ESG, but here it’s jolted with a dose of 21st-century electronica. While <i>Cream Cuts</i> brings to mind the soundtrack for many a hazy, late-night loft party from decades earlier, we relish the fact that this great music can now be heard any time of day.

via Apple Music