Labels: self released
Review by: Alex Deller
Funny one, this: an EP that starts in a way that seems quite pat (big, blarting basslines and cartoonish David Yow splutters) before ambling off into more unexpected territory. It’s with second track ‘Reckoning’ where the perspective seems to skew, with thin guitar shards fracturing off and doing their own thing while a faint, barely-perceptible trace of film noir unease begins to gather at the edges. By the time ‘Ashen’ gets itself together the noise-rock thumps are starting to fade like the morning’s hangover, with moments that recall The Gun Club, The Cramps and The Birthday Party beginning to elbow their way to the fore. While you can still chart a course back to The Jesus Lizard these bonier, more hollow-cheeked elements send The Tunnel down a different path entirely … one that leaves them weaving unsteadily between early 80s myth-making excess and the jagged storytelling brawn of Oxbow and The Paper Chase.