Tar Of

Brooklyn's Tar Of return with their sophomore album, Confidence Freaks Me Out, due to be released in October of 2023 on sound as language (Brin, Euglossine, Ki Oni). The second single, Berry, is streaming everywhere now. The lead single, Amused By Their Comment, was released in August. Confidence Freaks Me Out follows 2021's EP, Were I, also released on sound as language.

Tar Of's sophomore full-length album, Confidence Freaks Me Out, is an exercise in patiently constructed joyous absurdity. Each compositional choice was guided by a desire to confound and amuse: if an arrangement felt too serious, it was reworked with a silly premise, “bad” decision, or dumb inside joke tucked into a supporting wall. Any or all parts became interchangeable, permuting and transmuting ad nauseam.

As the pieces unspooled, they became completely untethered from their original meanings, generating new and increasingly wacky artifacts: melodic mondegreens spinning off into miniatures, placeholder syllables begetting dissonant symphonic breakdowns, toy pianos quantizing into shaky Hindustani talas.

Scaffolded by process-first mutant serialism and maximalist cheek, the album crams every inch of the canvas with stimulation, tempered by a lighthearted stupidity. It’s artrock with a bit of orchestral goof, a timid ensemble with party hats on, two composeurs playing musical parlour games.