We Move Through Weather

We Move Through Weather marks a transitional phase for Tarentel, and for a band that's seemingly constantly in transition, the shift on this album is perhaps the most pronounced of all their documented metamorphoses. Whether or not the modification of their mission statement reflects on the ever shifting lineup (Jefre Cantu-Ledesma and Danny Grody being the only constants) or is merely the result of the constant evolution of a highly adaptive species is inconsequential — Tarentel never fail to surprise, confound, delight and challenge their listeners and fans to be as adaptive as they are. This phase of the band, who have successfully explored everything from ambient minimalism, avant-garde, soundtrack work, and modern classical composition to straight-up guitar hero post-rock, could be its most abstract, and would reach its pinnacle with 2007's Ghetto Beats on the Surface of the Sun. But in 2004, they still conformed to a somewhat more conventional sense of song structure and melodic flow. The primary modus operandi is circular rhythm patterns from one or more live drum kits, augmented by experimental noise from keys, electronics, and samplers with a sprinkling of postmodern electric guitar. These instrumentals, ranging from just over one minute to nearly 17 in length, achieve varying degrees of success. Their primary focus, it would seem, is to develop a state of trance through what a like-minded musician (Kit Clayton) insightfully termed "repetition and nonsense." The songs are hypnotic yet remain anything but static, slowly unfolding over their courses to often end up light years from where they started, although due to a lack of common rock music reference points it's difficult to notice the journey as it passes, or thus to see the forest for the trees. This is zen music for now people.