Tammar - Visits [LP]

Tammar pulls off a pretty incredible trick with each and every one of it's post-punk anthems, probably something of which the band doesn't take much note. They mine the classic sounds of paranoia, malaise and misanthropy (Joy Division, the Velvet Underground, the Fall and early 90s alt-rock), and fill it all with so much exuberance and joy of playing that each song becomes a triumph over anxiety and ennui. Visits finds each of the band's members stepping outside of themselves, but not in a snake-poison-ingesting, flopping-on-the-floor sense. It's something else, something full of wonder.