Music Review // Tawni Bias "SEL Fellow"

 

https://tawnibias.bandcamp.com/album/sel-fellow

Tawni Bias is making the exact type of music that I love because it feels like there is this concept- such as an acoustic pop/rock album- and it is just chopped up and spit back out through a different lens.   While it can feel easy enough to compare Tawni Bias with other artists, those comparisons mostly stem from "SEL Fellow" having a traditional sound.   What Tawni Bias has created here is quite different and I'd go so far as to call it a masterpiece.

The first song, "Admonition", is thirty seconds but has this acoustic strumming with a trumpet and muted vocals feeling which runs right into the next song, "Two Poodles One Cake".   It picks up in the acoustics which can make it sound like twee (or not, I'm not entirely sure as I've been on a big twee kick lately and that might just be why)  There are acoustic spaces, layered vocals and the first thought I have about comparison is that it sounds like a slower version of Architecture In Helsinki.

Further into the album, the more pop references can appear.   Artists such as Blue October come out a little bit.  There is some banjo-type feeling on "Flare Intropin", but it also gives me strong Flora Cash vibes.    There exists a vocal manipulation within some of these songs as well, a way in which the sound changes and it feels like either a record is being scratched or a cassette is warped.   This comes out most on "Cardamom", which is all manipulated vocals until some tones come in and yet I still can think of it as being pop.

The final song on this album, "Bantry", is vocals with sad acoustics.   It's a calming way to take you from this album and back into reality, though most of these songs are chill and don't really have any in-your-face or fast paced ways about them.  I'm not sure how an artist decides to come up with a sound such as this, to take that existing sound and play with it, but I am certainly glad that Tawni Bias is taking music to the next level.