Visits

On Visits, Tammar pulls off a pretty incredible trick with each and every one of its post-punk anthems, probably something of which the band doesn’t take much note. They mine the classic sounds of paranoia, malaise and misanthropy (Joy Division, The Velvet Underground, The Fall and early 90s alt-rock), and fill it all with so much exuberance and joy of playing that each song becomes a triumph over anxiety and ennui. Visits finds each of the band’s five members stepping outside of themselves, but not in an snake-poison-ingesting, flopping-on-the-floor sense. It’s something else, something full of wonder. It’s witnessing a dear friend suddenly unveil an incredible hidden talent, as if that talent is levitation or some shit. These songs burst and evolve like water capsule toys. Warm beds of wobbly and fat-bodied krautpop prove to be overwhelming, atmospheric art-rock tours de force. You are left pie-eyed and windblown by the whole glorious affair. It’s the B-side of Neu! as pep rally music. It’s the kind of thing that would have flipped Old Man Peel’s wig in another place and time.