Label: Heist or Hit
Released: 17th February 2023
Bristol-based bopsmiths Tungz have bolted straight from the stalls with their debut full length, ‘A Good Dream’.
Made with enough synths to sink a ship, the quartet have clearly studied the annals of electropop history in great detail on their journey to their first album, making for a nostalgic sound that’s infused with an unmistakably fresh sense of fun. Fronted by the falsetto stylings of co-vocalists Nicky Green and Jamie Maier, each track is brought to life with an innumerable amount of instrumental layers and absurdly catchy moments.
Potentially the catchiest of all, ‘80,000’ is insatiably rhythmic, with its chorus called out with a steady rap; “I go through like 80,000 heartbreaks every day. I go get my hopes up and you give up and get up and walk away.” As Nicky and Jamie pass their lyrics back and forth, it’s impossible not to be dragged right into their web of pop. As you pull on the threads of the album, you’re likely to run into the vibe of another classic. A spot of Tame Impala in the vocals here, maybe some Nile Rodgers in the strings there, but there’s no doubt that Tungz have made something deeply original. They’ve not only harkened back to the genre’s past, they’ve boiled it down into undiluted, indulgently fun music.
It’s impossible to not find yourself compelled to dance to at least one of the bangers on ‘A Good Dream’, and any followers of the psych-pop genre will surely have their eyes set squarely on Tungz to see what bops are next to come.
