Tekulvi

In Recognition Of Your Significant Accomplishments (2002)

Rarrkitten

In one of my high school English classes, a teacher once said "the faster you can dive into a paper, state your message clearly, and get out without falling into the writing, the more likely people will like what you have to say." I think the same can be said for a CD. Thankfully Tukulvi feels the same way, and my sanity thanks them.

I heard mixed messages about this band before I took a listen to their CD. When I was given this CD to review, I had a lot of fears that the CD would be 68 minutes of completely boring crap and that I was going to die. I must admit, I fell in love with it almost immediately. The CD begins with this Rock and Roll entrance, which reminds me of Man or Astroman with an underlying theme from a Beach Boys song. The first song then progresses into this mess of screaming parts followed by rests that cause the body to jolt wildly in your chair without you even being aware of this fit of convulsions. The structure was more like a movement to a Classical piece, than some guys screaming in a basement. The songs just rang of class, and intellect. I thought for sure there was no way the rest of the CD could live up to this first song.

The entire CD just inspired me. I couldn't decide if I should be on the floor weeping or beating on brick walls until I bled to release the tension their songs caused within me. Every song had this taste of math rock that just destroyed any internal balance. At the same time though, Tekulvi was not trying to be tricky…you could still dance to them as most of their songs were in a waltz of 3/4 or 4/4. Might I add that Josh Browning and Chris Almodovar do an excellent job making the vocals just as unsettling and disgruntled as the rest of the music. I am absolutely in love with this CD and have been waking up to it everyday for a month. I can't wait to see them.