TYCHO – Dive (Part 2)

Zach takes Tycho apart piece by piece like a fine clock maker, examining what exactly makes the album tick and struggling with whether or not what he’s doing is really worth the time it’s taking to do it. Like his graphic design work as ISO50, Zach says Tycho’s music is pretty and interesting but hardly groundbreaking.

Tycho – “A Walk”

From: Zach Evans
To: André Salas

André,

I confess that I was also a little wary of reviewing an electronica album. The last time I was deep in this genre was back in my college days, when I snatched up every new release from Fatboy Slim, the Crystal Method, Dirty Vegas, the Chemical Brothers, and just about any other techno group that offered me some monster beats for weekend partying.

Since moving to Los Angeles and discovering KCRW (a public radio station famous for their excellent DJs and eclectic music), I have been exposed to the mellower side of electronica. But it’s a tough genre to be a casual fan of. There are rarely vocals to draw you in and provide a human element to the songs; it can be nearly impossible to identify a new track you’ve heard on the radio if there aren’t any lyrics to Google. So I have been working on discovering what contemporary electronica has to offer, but it is clearly a genre that rewards attentiveness.

You definitely picked the right adjective when you described Tycho’s album Dive as “dreamy.” Tycho favors reverb-soaked synths, fractured melodies, and gentle beats. It’s a sound that is common from artists on Ghostly International, a stellar label based in my hometown of Ann Arbor, MI. I hadn’t heard of Tycho before, so I dug up some information online. Tycho is the pseudonym of Scott Hansen, a native of Sacramento who moved to San Francisco in 1995 and got caught up in the worlds of both music and graphic design. He runs a design studio called ISO50, and his work has a signature look of warm colors and retro elements from which he rarely strays. The style is pretty and fairly interesting, if not necessarily groundbreaking, and I would venture to say the same about his music.

The beautiful synths that provide the backbone for Dive will be a familiar sound to anyone with even a superficial familiarity with electronica. How Tycho elevates his music slightly above the rest of the pack is by incorporating very warm, natural sounding guitar and bass lines in many of the best tracks.

The opener, “A Walk,” starts with a hazy mix of synthesized sounds that gradually coalesce around a rhythm section built on a drum machine and a lovely bass line, making for one of the best songs on the album.

“Daydream” and “Melanine” are two very different tracks that both benefit from having an acoustic guitar playing quietly underneath the melody. It helps bring the spacey sound of the music back down to earth.

You mentioned that you drifted a few tracks into the album, and I admit I had the same problem the first time I listened through it. There are a couple tracks in the middle that slow down the album and didn’t keep my attention. I found that by starting at track 6 I was able to stay engaged through the end, and I’m glad I did, because there are a couple good tracks on the B side. You also wrote that electronic music from film scores has the advantage of conjuring up imagery from the film, and I absolutely agree; “Adrift” has an ominous sound that made me think of the Blade Runner soundtrack. I liked it that much more just for the association.

The last track on Dive, “Elegy,” is unusual for how much guitar it features, but is one of the other standout songs on the album as a direct result. It’s kind of like the most mellow Explosions In The Sky song you’ve ever heard.

You’ve had a couple more days to listen to the album now, and I would love to know which tracks you go back to, if any? And you mentioned that the music might be “too pretty,” which is a criticism that’s been in the back of my mind as I’ve been listening to Dive. Are the lush dreamscapes of this album trying so hard to be beautiful that they fail to challenge us as listeners?

Daydreaming,
Zach

Dive is out now via Ghostly International.