Ok, so maybe TMP2 isn't how you want to meet producer Graham Kartna. For a "vaporwave" producer, his works is generally quite concise and direct. However, it's the album of his I've been listening to the most last month, and I might aggravate something like a hernia in my abdomen if I don't shout it out. Because Graham is a genius in my opinion and even his lesser works deserve a passing mention if not a full-throated endorsement. To give you some perspective, TMP2 is a bit of an island of misfit toys- a collection of partially finished and incomplete song ideas that lived a prior life of exile in Graham's draft folder. What's striking about this sonic junk drawer is how well all the pieces hang together- like a bunch of bananas. Meaning, they hang together very well and appear to be natural complements to each other... also, I find them delicious. A lot of They Might Be Giant's catalog has a similar kind of spontaneous, notional flexibility and ponderous agility as what Graham has allowed to cohere together on this release- even if TMP2's songs lack some of the structural consistencies that TMBG is known for. So, the edges might not be so clean, but the ideas are definitely all there, and these songs have a pop to them like a fresh can of coke. What I think this release exemplifies is how splendidly Graham can fold unlikely sounds together to make exquisite aural origami. It can feel like I'm listening to a set of plunderous Avalanches demos that raid unreleased archival recordings of Primal Scream and Sparks for sound and inspiration while the ghost of the late, great Maurice White silently serves as a poltergeist producer. And it can also feel like Neil Cicierega trying and failing at making a DJ Shadow album, while succeeding in spawning something akin to a gacked-out but amazing-sounding Knower record. I could come up with other illuminating analogies for this collection, but most importantly, it makes me feel like I rolled myself up in an industrial-sized spool of bubble wrap and then waddled into a ball pit where I was swarmed by puppies, i.e., it feels damn good.
