Centred around the tape machine recordings of Bart Swift, Ted Tyro is something of Louisville, Kentucky supergroup. Featuring members of Murals and Fire Talk‘s Wombo, the outfit craft a bass-led rock style which balances the angular tones of post-punk with a jangly garage rock energy. The result is a decidedly warm and bouncy punk style, albeit one which does not sacrifice its ability to critique systems of power amid the fun.
Take new single, ‘Inner World’. Its twitchy, upbeat rhythm ebbs and flows between runaway energy and unhurried cool, though gradually gathers itself as the song progresses. By the closing minute, the elements coalesce into a certain momentum. A bright and affirming conclusion which pulls the listener along.
But this apparent positivity belies the track’s depth, which delves into the strange and often soul destroying relationship between individuality and conformity under capitalism. Such themes can, at least in part, be attributed to fellow Louisville punks, Tropical Trash. “Their song ‘Your Place in the Chain‘ was kind of the thematic launch pad for this tune,” Swift explains. “I really fixated on the phrase ‘place in the chain,’ and I tried to use it to create a portrait of someone driven by ego and desire, someone who sees themselves as an integral link in the system but maybe cannot come to terms with being bound by said system.”
Artwork by Greg Sheppard