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BRIDGE AND TUNNEL :
THE GREAT OUTDOORS

This odd band has been around since the autumn of 1998, and released their debut in the spring of 2000, which was quickly followed up by "Without Ghosts", in August 2001. "The Great Outdoors" is their third outing, and their first as a full, four-piece band. Prior to this it was just a two-man show with a guitar, and a drum machine, but now we have: Mark Bihler (synths, programming, production), Kevin Williams (guitars, bass), Nathan Bennett (guitars, bass, vocals), and Nico Lippolis (drums). Bridge And Tunnel are not an easy bunch to label, their music pulls from many genres. One can pick out elements of Depeche Mode, Folk music, minimalistic art rock, Goth, Dance, and even Industrial. It's almost impossible to imagine what the average B&T fan would look like... a punk rocker?, a raver kid?, a NIN reject?, who knows. So what are you gonna find on here? Well, like some of the bands in the Stoner / Doom / Sludge-Rock scene (not that these guys have anything to do with Kyuss or Electric Wizard and the like), these boys enjoy being on the outer edge of conventional music, and punctuate the CD with expansive ambient dirges that go on for what seem like days, but are really only minutes. Breaking these bizarre "songs" up, are some actual solid tunes, very somber in nature, and with an eerie ability to creep back into your head for days to come. The most impressive has to be "Terrible Things". Listening to this track brings to the foreground, the same sort of bittersweet emotions one gets from listening to the last few Johnny Cash CDs. One is never quite sure if the narrative here is a soulful confession, or low-key style of bragging. Two other songs that'll never let you go are "Daves Big Score" and "City Rules". The problem is of course, all the other stuff you have to shift through to get there. After a few spins, I started to make great work of my fast-forward button. I know the freaky stuff is more "cool", and probably much more fun to write, as you can toss out all normal song-writing conventions, but if they could deliver a full CD of "Terrible Things", I would buy it in a second. For More info, check the band out at bridge-and-tunnel.com.
RATING = 5 Ambient Rock (Released 2003)

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