Tayne are about to serve themselves up as the absolute masters of tone and coherence, generating instantly recognisable soundscapes that blending industrial synth, thundering drums, ethereal vocals, raging guitar parts and incandescent screams. The benefit of this is that their debut album 'Love' has all the quality and production associated with a band well into the prime of their career, not one on their first official release. The downside, of course, is that it becomes impossible to listen to one song and not get lost in the music for hours or even days on end.
‘Erased’ definitely takes some cues from their previously released track ‘Niamer’, off of their 2021 EP 'Coherent', in using drums and synths to draw you into the soundscape that Tayne embodies, and setting the stage for ‘Love’ by showcasing all of the tools Tayne utilises to create a very strong opener. Easing into ‘Down’, which has a more frantic and yet soothing tone, this contrast masterfully captures the lyrics and explores the theme of lying to maintain the comfort of a relationship, as well as the internal struggles of those actions reaching the crescendo of internal conflict and musical breakdown. This is one of three tracks, at the time of writing, that has been accompanied with a music video by the wonderful Lief Johnson that details the personal story of Matt Sutton’s (Vocals/Bass) struggle with intimacy and his fathers journey to LGBTQIA+ liberation. It is a potent and powerful piece of music with stunning visuals, and we could easily spend this entire article talking solely about this one track.
‘Coherent’ expands this theme and, despite its 2021 initial release, shows the toll taken by the lyrics of ‘Down’. The addition of Rachel Aspe from Cage Fight brings another layer to the song as her vocal tone adds to the dissonance between the ethereal and the guttural. While we were already fans of the initial release, hearing this version does fill a previously imperceptible void and adds so much to this song, the duality of the screams with the lilting melodies encapsulating the toxicity of something that should be so beautiful.
‘Scars’ and ‘Cause_Worthless’ fan the spark from ‘Coherent’ into a raging symphony of Tayne's exceptional blend of noise pop and metal. Across the whole album, you notice as many musical cues and potential homages to HEALTH as you do Gary Numan, and numerous other pioneers of boundary-pushing, pop-inspired explorations into the extreme. Then slamming into ‘Fear’ we are blessed with a driving, escalating sense of power and control again - in stark contrast to the lyricism. ‘We’ fully embraces the industrial elements and generates a jarring, yet undeniably funky and infectiously groovy, bassline and melody that leads into ‘Wasted’. 'Wasted' returns us to an uneasy and enthralled state of amazement at how this trio can so effortlessly blend stadium filling riffs, videogame like synth melodies, drums heralding the apocalypse, and a voice smoother than butter.
‘In this trend’ is touted as an out of body experience of watching yourself press that self destruct button, and it definitely has the most oppressive and controlling vibe on the album. Its opening evokes an almost alarm like quality and then layers into a cathartic release of pent up rage and exasperation that I can sincerely say I have never felt such a connection to a song on a single listen in all my years.
Finally ‘Nothing’ fittingly somehow feels like picking up the pieces of a shattered and spent relationship, the song evokes the same sense of guilt, of fear, of helplessness and yet sets a hard edge of hope and rejoining oneself to try again or start anew that is required after the kind of outburst from the previous track.
Love is probably the most common source of inspiration for creative endeavours. Love is a staple for any genre because it's such a universal experience with such a variety of experiences. But ‘Love’ isn’t anything like what has come before. Tayne has delivered a beautiful exploration of the most human of emotions but through a lens of understanding and personal experience that could have easily turned bitter. It is a masterpiece of emotional resonance. Tayne has taken a genre that often feels like background music to an ongoing event and is pulling all the focus and attention centre stage to demand your attention way beyond the end of the album.
'Love' will be released on January 31st via MNRK Heavy and Inside Job.
Words: Danny Sanders
Photos: Tayne
Comments