NUTS OF AY

Description

"Nuts of Ay," the thirteenth album by the Berlin electronic pop duo Tarwater (Ronald Lippok and Bernd Jestram), is their first in ten years, since "Adrift" in 2014. Beautifully crafted and well-dressed, it is an album that immerses the various pasts of Tarwater into a high-definition present, while once again bringing the duo into a productive dialogue with all sorts of traveling companions. Tarwater's music has always been marked by hypnotic pop, but this is particularly evident on "Nuts of Ay," where a song like "Hideous Kiss" weaves together a clicking guitar, a pastoral flute, and shimmering electronics into a jewel-like construction. While the lyrics of "Hideous Kiss" are written by the duo, "Nuts of Ay" also continues a long tradition of Tarwater of reshaping the words of others into their own mold. This time, their repertoire is vast: poetry by Derek Jarman ("All Nuns") and Millner Place ("Trapdoor Spider"); lyrics by Jean Kenbrovin ("I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles"), the late Shane MacGowan, and once again, John Lennon ("Everybody Had a Hard Year").