tttc - St. Patrick's Day

 

Released: May 14

Vietnamese experimental artist tttc (short for Trang Trait Trai Cay) sent me something that is genuinely weird and takes full advantage of the term experimental. The album is presumably about the holiday after which it is named and takes a rather interesting twist on the theme. Tttc says himself that the leprechaun is a solitary creature who is well known for playing practical jokes, and this seems to be a lot of what is going on here. The whole album refuses to find a specific tone or theme to center itself on and instead jump around wildly in terms of themes and motifs. Some tracks have an odd noise-jazz feel to them, others feel much more like an ambient track, and some are just... odd. 

The album starts out with some of the third option with the track "condom shop." It's starts out with some kind of rubber band sounding bass tones that feel weird and bouncy but then the track takes a turn into what sounds like wet slaps, blowing sounds, and... well, I'm quite sure that all of these sounds are actually coming from a condom. Which is quite impressive given the different sounds pulled from this but also difficult to discuss considering most of the language I've used here could be easily intentionally misconstrued for laughs. But immediately after this... curiosity,  we get "hatchin.'" This one has a more whimsical melodic feel with a fun beat to match as well as some odd vocal tones and noises that are hard to place. But its definitely a fun switch-up. Then the third track feels feels like a watery ambient track, especially considering it is aptly named "sauna." It is a little off-putting though as everything only comes in to right ear with just a slight bleed over to the left. An interesting choice for sure, reminiscent of those 60's songs that would have the hi-hat panned 100 percent to one side.  

Most of the tracks on the album hover between two and six minutes, except for the last one which I am not going to attempt to type out because I will undoubtedly get it wrong. However, it is by far the most epic of all the tracks here at nearly thirteen minutes and filled with bizarre synth sequences that seem to never actually repeat. There's a bit of padding all around it, but the main lead takes the reigns here and constantly morphs and mutates, going from a sequenced bit flipping through tones at varying speeds and interval to a long and sustained noise that slowly raises and lowers. It's quite a way to end a very unusual, but intriguing, album.