Tanner Walle is someone whom I found on the wonderful Bandcamp via mutual artists I’ve reviewed previously and I’m delighted to say Tanner is a man whom has captivated me with his latest EP “Bodega”.
Kicking off with “Elevators”, Walle is able to build a smooth silky sound. Everything from the pacey drum loops, guitars, keyboards, effects and vocals has a sheen to it like pouring chocolate. Its warm, juicy and ever flowing. As the guitars lazily finger slide their chords over crystalline keyboard spirals, you forget that Tanner’s vocals are providing a string-like quality over the top. It’s beautifully produced and catchy too. “I Know Better” has a breezy quality to it, like a sunset in sepia. It also has an unusual chord pattern too which uses its discord to great effect when the track evolves and gets more edgy and low-toned. The outro is an amazing collage of instruments merging together – a great sound.
“Friends” turns up the guitar amp and things move from alt-pop to alt-rock. It’s got a real shuffle rock sway to it as the guitar free-flows over Tanner’s smooth vocal delivery. He doesn’t need to do much to command his voice in a recording as it has a distinctive tone to it. “Soaking Wet” starts chilled out with echoing pianos in the background of what sounds like telephone ring tones playing the verse riffs. For the chorus things build more with some great vocal layering and then drum machines kick in to elevate the track to something special.
“Ghost” uses electronica elements hidden underneath sultry pop rock open strums and vocal flexing to craft probably the most emotive track on the EP. It’s only in this track Tanner’s vocals twist and bend into more rockier fronts and he proves he can do that too, even when the production verges on easy listening at times. “Desire” then closes the EP with a hushed organ and keyboard driven track that has so many layers of synth and vocal that it feels like a wave of sound washing over you. Something that the whole EP has is a richness and here is where it’s most noticeable, especially when the tempo switches gear to a faux dance track half way through and explodes into a blur of sound.
Simply, I was blown away by the EP and will be urging everyone looking for new artists in 2014 to be popping through Tanner Walle’s place to grab themselves a copy of Bodega. Amazing stuff.