Album Review – Harness by TV Sundaze (2023) (Tape Source Records)
France can grumble. No, not in the moaning, cantankerous origins of the word, but more specifically in the musical sense that sees French acts such as EggS, Fontanarosa, En Attendant Ana, Healees, and Hobby crash through traditional jangle-pop parameters into a sound that takes jangle rock into far more dark, pervasive, and snide areas. It sounds a tad “wrong,” I know, but in the last 18 months, such acts have been oh so right and have thrown some much needed grit into the genre..
Step forward TV Sundaze, whose second Harness album deserves to be lauded alongside the aforementioned acts, has an energy that alternates between languid and hectic while maintaining a driven jangle rock stance throughout.
Starting with a four-track salvo that neatly introduces the distinct nuances of the album, Make It Happen, Too Much, and I Need To Take A Rest offer Cola-style post-punk that is all modern quirk and dominant riff-laden sparsity, whereas the Young Guv surf-laden, power-pop essence and jangled riffs of Change My Name and the superlative standout of 5 PM are the polar opposites of this in a truly eclectic album.
However, the very best of the album is a homage to the mid-2000s as Inspiration, Maybe, Ruby Room (It’s Alright), and Waiting For The Day take on the early Arctic Monkeys’ indie rock sound and lace it with the sort of vibrant, jangling riffs that give so much appeal to the Ducks Ltd aesthetic.
Available here on CD from their own Tape Source Records label, this feels like my first ‘big’ find of 2023!
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