Review: Tungsint ‘The Drought’ EP

‘Shouldn’t we be content to be cosmic couch potatoes, enjoying the universe from the comfort of our home planet? No, we should not.’ – Stephen Hawking. This quote is off Tungsint’s Bandcamp page and it immediately jumped out at me. I’ve always been intrigued by space travel and what’s really out there. I agree with Stephen Hawking and let’s stop looking at the stars through our giant atmospheric window and explore the cosmic universe.

I know that I will never actually leave this planet. For two reasons, the obvious that I can’t just jump onto the next spaceship out of here (hell airplanes are hard enough to get on these days), and two, I’m afraid of heights. My best option for space travel is to turn on Tungsint’s debut EP The Drought, close my eyes and let the music be my vessel to travel the vast cosmic beyond.

Opening my Waze app, typing in the coordinates to Kepler-62f (which, according to Wikipedia, is a super-Earth exoplanet orbiting within the habitable zone of the star Kepler-62) and pressing go. The fuzzed-out bass and pummeling drum intro are quickly followed by an epic guitar riff that emulates the power of a spacecraft launch. The song Kepler-62f contains everything I’ve been loving in music lately, just backward. The reverse crescendo gives the illusion of the chaotic exit of our atmosphere into the calming weightlessness of space. Clean arpeggios with plenty of reverb close out this short track. The Swedish duo Matti (guitars and bass) and Jocke (drums and stuff) immediately grab your, not only your attention but your imagination.

A variety of very cool sounding instruments and sounds come together in unison for an otherworldly soundscape…

The Morse code picks back up where it left off on the previous track and I wish I could figure out what it says but I can’t haha. The intro to Aranea: Interlude, I assume, is where Jocke plays the ‘stuff’ as listed on Bandcamp. A variety of very cool sounding instruments and sounds come together in unison for an otherworldly soundscape. The Interlude paints the scene of traveling through space on the way to Kepler-62f and seeing the universe first-hand as if flies by just outside the porthole window of my imaginative space cruiser.

Tungsint bring back the explosive riffs immediately on the epic eleven-minute-long closer As An Empire Falls. The high energy and immense volume continues for a relentless five minutes. The song transitions into an awesome lead riff as the remaining instruments are silent. The distorted riff fades and a melodic drumbeat accompanied by clean guitar fills the space. As the song builds back up matching the energy from the beginning, I get a strong post-rock vibe in the vein of God is an Astronaut and I’m loving every second. The song quickly ends with a short fade-out of distorted guitars that is almost a cliffhanger stating that this journey into the great unknown is far from over.

It’s worth noting that these two incredible musicians recorded this album in their own homes and gives me hope that (with much hard work and dedication) I may be able to do this myself. I thoroughly enjoyed this EP and can only hope this is just a small chapter in the grand story that is heading our way.

Label: Evil Noise Recordings | Independent
Band Links: Official | Facebook | Bandcamp | Twitter | Instagram

Scribed by: Josh Schneider