For Tarah Who?, volume isn’t so much a means to an end but an all-out priority, and in their new single “Supposedly a Man,” they prove that they can be loud and proud – but no sloppy about it. Too often in the past year have I come across a new heavy rock act that wants to be as big and brash as Kyuss or Monster Magnet yet lacks the melodic sensibilities to hold their shape in a long performance, but I don’t get that from Tarah Who? (especially here). They put on a clinic in this single, and give us a lot to look forward to as critics and fans.
BANDCAMP: https://tarahwho.bandcamp.com/
The stoner rock influences here are pretty obvious, but it needs to be said that this duo isn’t living in the past about it. They’re not trying to work some kind of retro metal angle with the stylization of the riffs in this song, nor do they seem the type to listen to old Sabbath records with the exclusive purpose of pushing out something both punchy and overdriven. There’s a pop-style credibility to the hook in this track that speaks to this unit’s effectiveness and depth, and any critic who hears “Supposedly a Man” will likely agree with me.
In their music video for this song, Tarah Who? exemplify their frills-free ethics through a cut and dry visual embodiment of what their sound is. Forget the Hollywood theatrics and nonsensical props of more selfish acts trying to make it in pop today; from the moment they get started here, I think it’s obvious that they are more reliant on their sonic intuition when it comes to scoring fans than they are any of the bells and whistles some of their contemporaries would just as soon try to build an entire identity around.
There’s absolutely zero give in these guitar parts, and as someone who has been jonesing for a fatter tonal presence out of the underground recently, this is just what the doctor ordered this autumn. The muscularity of the strings isn’t even half of it – there’s a punishing intensity to the arrangement of the bass and the guitar that makes every beat from the drums a little crunchier than it needed to be. The mix is immense, but not overdone by any stretch of your imagination
I cannot wait to hear where Tarah Who? are going with this present direction they’re in on “Supposedly a Man,” and if there’s anything we can learn about their ambitiousness just from listening to this track and observing the music video made in support of its release, it’s that this group isn’t going to let mainstream standards stop them from being as defiantly loud as they can get. It all starts with big volume, and atop this foundation Tarah Who? build an unsophisticated, boogie-centric rock n’ roll style that has a real chance at winning back some of the critical and commercial success that was lost to more exciting genres some ten years ago.
Troy Johnstone