TUNDRA SURVEY
Cracked Radiator, Bum Transmission
INDEPENDENT
Many’s the modern band that has set out to mint an “imaginary soundtrack.” As conceits go, it’s not without merit, but it has also made for an embarrassment of self-indulgent work. You get better results from a band like Chicago’s Tundra Survey, who set out to score a film and never got there. This is the sound of their detour: viola, cello, flute, xylophone, electric bass, electric guitar, weaving and ramping through the ashen light of dusk as Codeine, Rachels, Godspeed, Boxhead Ensemble and Dirty Three have done before them. There’s little of the “mortal theatre” that you get from those bands, but a human touch that starts with their hand-cut packaging and goes deeper. Their Chicago roots, on the other hand, are occasionally evident in alert rhythm play. Tundra Survey generally seem less interested in grandiose statements than taking you somewhere. It may be somewhere you’ve been before, or maybe not. At 40 minutes, it’s a short trip but a vivid and memorable one. [MC]
• Tundra Survey play Raven Saturday, August 18
