- Alternative pop/rock
- Psych-rock
- Lo-fi
- Electronic
- Alternative dance
- DIY
- Indie dance
- Outsider music
- Psych-pop
- Indie pop/rock
- Electro-rock
- Baggy
- Dance rock
- Progressive
- Avant-pop
- Experimental pop
- Progressive
Comment: the members of The Hirundu got an inkling to embark on recording their own music by watching a TV show with the appearance of Happy Mondays there. It did happen sometime at the end of the 80s when soaring guitar sound was mingled with acid house inspired dance-appealed beats. I guess Johnny Crewdson and company from Blackpool did not get interested in that not because it was hip but it did have a strong psychedelic groove, possible DIY attitude and a solid amount of humour within the backbone. The things would have developed in the way the number of albums by The Hirundu today can already be compared to The Fall, another big favourite of theirs. From initial strong psychedelic groove and dadaist take on radiophonic art and frantic lo-fi pop and rock to be progressing into an idiosyncratic electronic experimental slot. However, by exploring the discography of the combo one can figure out unpredictable twitches between the aforementioned stylistic developments. Additionally, The Hirundu made a lot of modern lo-fi/DIY things to happen approximately a decade before Ariel Pink and a new wave of home recording artists did.
By listening to this 15-notch album and from the very first psychedelic soporific chords one can admit the proper way to set up new directions in music is to explore the past because music like everything around is an experiential and synthetic field for sure. More profoundly, it is Johnny Crewdson's retrodelic act one can hear influences coming out from Primal Scream's Screamadelica (A Nuttist) and sublime baggy rhythms by searching for psychedelic cloudless quietude and to be succumbed to halcyon gravity-free grasp. Indeed, at times I was even struck by a heretical thought Johnny Crewdson tries to retreat deliberately from the previous efforts with regard to either some more silent moments or progressive examples (Seven Feffers) within it. However, there is no heresy in the artist's thinking, Tantalus is a knowing realisation of his frightening yet mesmerizing ideas. For instance, the album is ended up by Merengue, a superb melodic artsy pop approach where you can feel the ambition, dynamics, humor and sensibility. The album is top notch by any means especially living at a time when (mainstream) music is being fucked-up due to stupid exploitation of mechanical voice machines. At a time of talentless and cowardly artists.