Genres can be helpful ways to organize or even just think about art, but they’re not really real, so why not have fun with them? That might be part of the reason why the genre tags on Berlin trio Tavare’s debut LP include not just recognizable, expected ones like “dreampop” and “slowcore,” but also more bespoke ones like “couch rock” and “dirgepop.” A genre’s value often lies primarily in two things: first, does considering the things it groups together have any function or bring any meaning to the collected works? Second, does the genre idea itself evoke anything? That latter idea is where these more playful categorizations can shine; I don’t know of any other dirgepop bands, but the term certainly resonates with what Tavare does here.
Pop of any sort is not likely to be on listeners’ minds the first time they hit play on the glacial “Unentwine,” but over repeat listens Too Small to Be So High reveals itself as an unusually tuneful, even hummable example of the kind of stark, gradual music they traffic in. On that first track Nadja’s Aidan Baker (also on guitar here) takes vocal lead, but with the following “Lucy” Tavare is revealed to be a multiple-vocalist outfit, with bassist Tristen Bakker frequently taking the lead, and both harmonizing on a lovely, gentle cover of Dinosaur Jr.’s “Thumb.” Even drummer Ángela Muńoz gets in on it, joining in as they all turn the end of “Left Behind” into a round, and adding a bit of spoken Spanish to the patient swell of “El Océano.”
Muńoz plays with brushes here, and over the more restrained interplay of the other two she often hits with the impact of a cannonball. Partly this is due to the recording process; invited to play a concert in a church, the trio spent the afternoon recording these seven songs with the natural reverb of the space and as few overdubs as possible. The result doesn’t sound at all like a live album, but the room tone carries through and melds with the hushed intensity of the playing to form something special.
With a French name for a common bird and an album title alluding to journeying, metamorphosis and reaching to light, Mésange convey a great deal of imagery, themes and ideals in three short words. The captivating sounds this UK-based duo produce on Gypsy Moth call to this sense of the transient, the malleable ~ ultimately, the undefinable. These are soundscapes without names or borders.
