SPOTIFY REVIEW: Tunabunny "Kingdom Technology" (HHBTM)

             It’s been a while since I heard the name Happy Happy Birthday to Me Records.   Oh, I still listen to music that was released on HHBTM back in the early ‘00’s. but I’ve not really been keeping up with them since moving to Houston and then back to Connecticut, which is apparently a shame.   Back when I was doing NCA, it seemed like a ton of releases were coming to me every month from HHBTM, and now it seems as if the label has slowed down a little bit in terms of how much it is putting out and just the number of bands on its roster as well.

            Though this is Tunabunny’s fourth full length album, this is my first time hearing them.   There are quite a few different styles that come out on this album and they all are pleasing to my ears.   In another time and another place, yes, I did expect this to be twee, as in many ways I feel like HHBTM helped to establish that sound on the whole, at a time when I didn’t have the luxury of using the word “twee”.  But I suppose it is only natural for HHBTM to have bands that are not necessarily twee, as I am not the same writer as I was some ten plus years ago.

            This is psychedelic.  It’s synth drone fuzz with the beat of the drum that cuts through space, like literal shredding.  Blondie comes out on some level, as does synthwave, but this is art pop rock at its core.  It can have some Delta Dart and Capricorns comparisons, but then the song “Bag of Bones” is something that you can really dance to if the mood should strike (and this song should help it to strike hard)

            In a world where a lot of bands sound the same, it is refreshing to hear a band like Tunabunny come along and just blow away all those preconceptions of how most bands these days end up just sounding exactly like somebody else.    Having the knowledge that this is their fourth album makes me both want to go back and listen to all of their prior releases as well as gives me hope for the future.