Record Review - Talbot Tagora: Lessons in the Woods or a City

The winding, grinding and antagonistic grooves of Talbot Tagora’s Lessons in the Woods or a City are steeped in terse darkness. Even during the most anxiety-ridden moments of “Mixed Signals Through Miles of Pilgrimage” or the wild, careening melodies of “Black Ice,” clusters of rhythm and dirge bang and rattle without losing control. “Bounty Hunter” embodies the album’s drive with its full-throttle fugue into guitar, bass, drums and buried vocals. Each song twitches with aggression and explodes with an energy that somehow remains wrapped inside concise sonic parameters without bursting at the seams. The strain of so much ferocity and aural tension equals heart-pounding exhilaration. (Hardly Art) 5 stars out of 5