»The Limits of a Light Touch« finds Troth approaching a kind of sideways pop music, perhaps more directly than ever before. This is communicated through a refined musical language that blends ambient pop, blurry trip-hop slows and art-rock experimentalism.
This is the first of Troth’s releases to consciously welcome external influence into their songwriting. Not with the considered intention of trying to bottle an ephemeral zeitgeist, but rather to co-habitate with spirits that resonate personally.
The album is likely somewhat influenced by Troth’s recent run as NTS residents and occasional Early Bird show hosts. A return to active digging and deeper engagement with sounds from the outside world has opened their ears to what their music can be.
This process of radio programming has involved a (re)engagement with music that was popular during their teenage years. Not as a nostalgia-laden flight from the present or a fixation on cyclical trends, but as a reappraisal of these artists, looking at them afresh – or for the first time – with 20 years in the rear-view mirror.
The themes and influences of Troth’s five previous LPs (six if you count 2023’s »Idle Easel« EP) are intrinsic to their DNA and still clearly present here: the influence and immersion in environment, a constantly evolving dialogue with each other and a strong commitment to sustaining a vital global DIY community.
»TLOALT« commenced with the quick and natural creation of »In Essence«. Possibly the most straight-ahead pop song on the album, it was crafted amid profound personal challenges: the process of losing a loved one. »Found Ring« and »Knotwork« blur elements of Besseny and Bowman’s other project, the trio Th Blisks (with Yuta Matsumura), with a greater appreciation of leftfield UK pop from 2009 onwards.
In »Burrows«, Troth absorb elements from Animal Collective and Vashti Bunyan’s collaborative »Prospect Hummer«, melding ethereal folk pop with Paavoharju’s outer-limits approach and the general looseness of the Fonal sound. This same pagan ritual energy carries into »Incanta«, but is realised in clearer ecstasy through manually played electronics, keeping everything comfortably wonked and off-grid.
While perhaps not immediately evident, the influence of Broken Social Scene’s »You Forgot It in People« carries into the loose, uninhibited takes on indie-adjacent art pop in »Shaking Light«, »She Sees Stars« and »Foggy Motion«.
Later, a darker, dubbed experimentalism is channelled, with ample help from UK mate The Dengie Hundred, on »Two Urns Mark The Way«. A kind of exquisite corpse of a song, reverse-(re)engineered from an unreleased track from Troth’s first album, wherein none of its past is any longer extant.
»The Limits of a Light Touch« is Troth’s first release on their own label, Dearest Latest. Having always been a staunchly DIY duo, it makes sense for Troth to make their own music available independently again.
This follows a string of albums released on labels tied to the international underground, including Night School (Glasgow), A Colourful Storm (Australia), Knekelhuis (the Netherlands), Discreet Music (Sweden), Mother’s Mysteriska Jukebox (Sweden) and Digital Regress (US).
Dedicated to the memory of Brigitte Bowman. Open your wings, you are free.
FFO AC Marias, Tara Clerkin Trio, Leslie Winer, Paavoharju, Inga Copeland and Animal Collective.
erscheint voraussichtlich am 30. Okt