Back in October 2012, Lil Ugly Mane released two compilations composed of various amateurs’ “first beats / first attempts at making music,” the idea being that there exists a certain purity in one’s initial compulsion to create and, therefore, an otherwise-unattainable degree of realness in an artist’s first recording. This post isn’t about Lil Ugly Mane or his unsupervised doctoral dissertation, though; it’s about Turnbull Green and his new EP, Heady, which Tiny Mix Tapes has the distinct pleasure of premiering to you here and now.
Listening to this five-song set is not unlike listening to the first demo of a talented and tasteful friend who, for years, you’ve been pressuring to record something. It’s raw, spontaneous, and unpredictable in all the right ways. Its mistakes aren’t low points, but happy accidents that steer the song(s) in new directions, adding depth of character and texture. It’s the philosophy of glitch (music) or “experimental punk,” depending on who you ask.
This is not to say that Heady sounds outright amateurish. To the contrary, Turnbull’s take on L.A. Beat-style glitch-hop is clearly the result of much practice and careful consideration. But at its best, the EP seems to grasp, however briefly, the kind of uncompromised integrity one usually only finds in an artist’s first outing — a feat made all the more impressive by the fact that this isn’t Turnbull’s first; his debut LP, The Wolf In You dropped in March on Take A Record/Daylight Curfew.
• Turnbull Green: http://turnbullgreen.com
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