Being a modern youth(ish) it is fair to say I come supplied with a degree of self-obsession. So when I saw a band called Te’ were up for review, I of course assumed it was some sort Yorkshire thing and having spent most of my formative years in Yorkshire I thought “aye, I’ll ‘ave a bit o’ that love”, under the assumption it was ‘te’ as in “I’m off te’ park” or something similarly colloquial. Incorrect, well just goes to show I should pay attention to the wider world and maybe read more. Te’ are definitely based in the wider world, hailing from Japan the band formed in 2004, ‘Therefore, the illusion of density breach, the tottering world “forget” tomorrow’ is their fourth album, and notably to followers of the band, it is the first album to feature new bassist Matsuda. Judging by the precise manner in which the tunes on ‘Therefore, the illusion of density breach, the tottering world “forget” tomorrow’ are crafted he must have been stepping into some big boots and sounds like he’s a good fit – playing subtly when required but definitely not afraid to slam on the distortion pedal to give them an extra kick it all sits together perfectly. Although there are no vocals Te seem to give you your word fix by having the longest song names imaginable, which while quite enjoyable is also a pain in the chops when reviewing them, with tunes like ‘Magic smoulders in the depths of optimism as the remnant of ”sin” conceived by the collective unconscious of a million people’ and ‘The dream world does not fear the ”censorship” of gravity as the ethereal body breaks through from the closed inside’ it’s like leafing through the bible for quotes . I do sort of feel like they are trying to overcompensate for their lack of vocals through titles and use of big words – but hey, why not. The fact that the majority of the titles are more complex and deep than 87% of the other songs with actual words in is to the bands detriment. Or maybe Japanese is just a much more eloquent language? Either way I’m down with it but I wouldn’t ever try and text a mate to say “check out this song, its called ‘Realize that morality is a device of power, and ”shackles” the ultimate freedom of the people’ – it’s totally banging”, who has that sort of time? I would however thoroughly recommend Te to all my friends with decent taste and good level of reading – (preferably year 9 and above to get the real benefit from these titles). It is always difficult to not immediately draw comparisons to other instrumental bands but I feel it’s fair game, so indulging myself in that, I’d categorise them as a warmer and less drawn out version of This Will Destroy You, they do not quite have the ferocity of And So I watch you from afar but they have a gorgeous organic feel in direct conflict with the fantastic 65 Days Of Static for instance – if any of those bands float your boat I would wager that you would not be disappointed. It doesn’t feel like there’s anything missing from the songs, yet they sit alongside similar post-punk, music in terms of length and sound. There is a real drive behind all the songs which gives the album as a whole a lot of energy without any reliance on trying to be all classical about it or just making an aggressive noise to cover the impact that vocals often have. I thoroughly enjoy this album and its ridiculously long titles, if Te’ ever come t’north of England I’ll definitely be taking them in.
