Tangled Thoughts Of Leaving celebrate 10 years since the release of their debut album “Deaden The Fields” this year, with the album becoming available on CD & vinyl internationally for the first time.
The piano-driven Progressive Rock quartet have amassed a cult following worldwide for their noisy, ethereal experiments in sound, with several following releases showcasing their increasingly unique sound: Failed By Man and Machine (2013), Yield To Despair (2015) and No Tether (2018).
The band have toured Australia and Europe consistently over the past decade, including tours with Russian Circles, This Will Destroy You, 65daysofstatic, sleepmakeswaves, We Lost The Sea, Karnivool, Dead Letter Circus and Boris. They’ve performed at Belgium’s legendary Dunk Festival several times, as well as headlining their own club shows across Australia, the UK and Europe.
Young Epoch reflects on the band’s first album: “We’ve recently witnessed the deconstruction and rebuilding of individual ideas on Tangled Thoughts of Leaving’s newest record No Tether, so there’s no better time than now to re-trace all the steps back to where the band had their conceptual foundation. Their 2011 debut Deaden The Fields presents as a love letter to prog, jazz and post-rock, unique and sprawling but more dedicated to approachable flow than its unyieldingly challenging younger sibling.
This is not to say that Deaden The Fields can be easily digested upon first listen; laughing in the face of quick and snappy album openers, the record begins with the 17-minute monolith Landmark. The impressive trick that TTOL executes, however, is making this potentially intimidating running time feel entirely manageable, as the powerful one-two punch of keyboardist Ron Pollard and drummer Behn Stacy somehow imbue their sonic gymnastics with an unexpected listenability.
For all intents and purposes, Deaden The Fields should be a difficult record to wrap one’s head around, even for seasoned listeners, but it remains such that one can lock into a groove in the same moment that they are awed by the skill and craftsmanship of it all. This is in many ways facilitated by the manner in which guitarist Andrew McDonald and bassist Luke Pollard never overcrowd the mix, and in fact fill the spaces around the free-jazz madness supplied by Ron Pollard and Stacy in ways that pull everything together in the necessary fashion to allow these very intellectual compositions to be instantly enjoyable on the visceral level that is integral to the ultimate success of the music.“
Mastered by Swedish engineer Pelle Henricsson (Cult of Luna, Refused), Deaden the Fields quickly became championed by listeners, leading to TTOL’s consistent support of major acts touring Western Australia (Russian Circles, Boris etc.) and their increased visibility and reputation in prog and post-metal/post-rock circles, ultimately blazing a path to their highly touted 2015 masterpiece Yield To Despair and beyond to No Tether’s release in 2018. Through dunk!records fans can now experience their brilliant genesis point anew with this beautiful double vinyl re-release.
Watch the video for the track “Landmarks” through the YouTube player below:
The band joined the Bird’s Robe Records family just after the original release of their debut. Director Mike Solo had this to say: “Tangled Thoughts of Leaving are absolutely incredible. A long-time favourite of almost all the other Bird’s Robe bands, I’ve been in awe of their live show ever since we brought them to the east coast to play with sleepmakeswaves & Nikko back in 2011. The friendship with sleepmakeswaves obviously runs all the way back to their 2009 split EP together, which is how I first heard of them.
TTOL epitomise the spirit of experimentation and intensity that is at the heart of what I wanted Bird’s Robe to be. They are prolific, independent, impressively technical yet accessible and above all, just good people.
I really want more people to experience what makes this band so great and revisiting their debut album is the perfect way to do that. Check it out, jump right in and enjoy.”
Tracklist
1. Landmarks
2. Throw Us to the Wind
3. …And Sever Us From the Present
4. Deep Rivers Run Quiet
5. Deaden the Fields
6. They Found My Skull in the Nest of a Bird
Purchase the album through Bandcamp: https://ttol.bandcamp.com/album/deaden-the-fields
