Tara Clerkin Trio - s/t

One of THE great debuts to have been released in the shop's lifetime is mercifully back in print having spent a good few years floating around on the second hand market for increasingly inflated prices (and kudos to Laura Lies In for somehow keeping the unit cost low on this latest edition). A lot has happened since its release back in 2020, the two EPs World of Echo issued chief amongst them, though it's clear they were on it very hot from the get go. And equally it's pretty interesting to revisit what we made of it on first listen to see how much of that still stands true today -- TCT trade in gentle hearted experimentalism, shuffling almost-jazz drums, creaking keys, the odd melodica, and electronic abstractions structured around Clerkin's hypnotic vocal. It's woozy and disorientating in its oddness, but there's also a kind of wonky pop sensibility at its heart, a little like Julia Holter's Loud City Song, Broadcast or even the lesser celebrated sounds of R. Elizabeth. 'In The Room' is so unhurried and effortless, you could easily convince me it was the work of a much more storied band, while the closing one-two of 'Any of Those'/'There Will Be Time' made me think of 'O Superman', for which there can be no higher praise. But more than anything, this is distinctly modern, the kind of music you'd only imagine young people to be making in 2020 if the future had turned out the way it was meant to be. Generous and welcoming, but explorative too. There's not many things you can make that claim of right now and this feels like a special discovery.