tUnE-YaRdS is about as lo-fi DIY as it gets. She recorded her entire album, BiRd-BrAiNs on a Sony digital voice recorder, combining various sounds from her life she collected over two years. The mashed together album is raw and incredible.
The best way I can think of to describe tUnE-YaRdS is experimental folk. At points she gets almost tribally rhythmic, at others she’s working more with basic structures. She favors the ukulele on many songs, giving some tracks a strange island jam feel. On others you get a folk sense. Live, it’s her instrument of choice.
But what sets tUnE-YaRdS apart is her use of everyday sounds. On “Jamaican” alone, she uses the sound of a child coughing, what sounds like a circular saw, a hammer and a car horn (I think). This is not your mom’s album to drive to work to, grab the new Neil Young for that. BiRd-BrAiNs is an art project gone very very right. It’s both brilliant and mesmerizing, beautiful and curious. For those with an open ear.
BiRd-BrAiNs is out now on Marriage Records.
tUnE-YaRdS – “Sunlight” [MP3]
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