Quite a bit is new on Dorwytch, the fifth album by british musician Alexander Tucker. His compositions based on loops, condensed by repetition and layering, are opposed to string arrangements, syntheziser attacks, drones and electronica. For the first time, he uses percussion instruments played by Free-Jazz-drummer Paul May. Purists already complain about the amount of novelties – maybe they’re right. Even though the new elements go surprisingly well with the songs by Alexander Tucker, which seem to be set in worlds between, tell stories of strange creatures and work off Alan-Moore-subjects, they lose some of their depth, some of the abysmal and cryptical that turned Alexander Tucker and his music into one of the most interesting songwriting of recent years. Once his voice was compared to Brian Eno on his Taking Tiger Mountain, today his vocals on the orchestral tracks rather resemble Tears for Fears. That doesn’t mean it’s not good, not at all: it’s just something entirely different. Another colouring is added to Tucker’s debut for Thrill Jockey. It is more diverse, but also in its results. That doesn’t change the fact, thought, that Tucker is one to be discovered.
Dorwytch