Tidals

News flash: Fort Worth is not as cool as a lot of us probably think it is. For all we have to recommend our fair burgh –– The Modern! The Usual! Fort Worth Contemporary Arts! –– there’s a lot that indicates that we are decades if not millennia behind similarly sized North American cities. Want a fancy-schmancy craft cocktail? You’ve got about five places to choose from. (See: Last Call, pg. 28.) Got a progressive piece of art to display? Well, there’s the same number of progressive galleries in town now as there was 30 years ago. And if your music is not A.) rock, B.) punk, C.) metal, D.) hip-hop, or E.) country, you might as well not even live here. Which is a shame, because not only is Tidals doing something different in Fort Worth, but the duo of Jeremy Lantz and Joshua Wrinkle is doing something different in the world of electronic music (not that I’ve listened to every piece of electronic music ever performed, but having lived in New York City during the short-lived yet influential illbient movement, I’ve listened to enough).

Tidals’ new album is eerily and happily unclassifiable. Seplica’s Bedroom is synthetic and groove-oriented (and, save for many found voice samples, instrumental), but it’s not as hip-hoppy as the handiwork of DJ Spooky or Peanut Butter Wolf and not as melodic as Toro Y Moi or Panda Bear. But still. The nine-track collection, produced by Jordan Richardson, a.k.a. Son of Stan (Oil Boom, Bummer Vacation, The Longshots), draws the listener in and holds him firmly in place. From a small palette, Lantz and Wrinkle manage to fashion dynamic sonic tapestries that don’t move around too much but shift just enough to keep you listening. On “Exotic Pets,” synthesized handclaps and moody legato synth lines coalesce over a steady, trebly kick drum as voices ramble and ping-ponging old-school video game noises go bleep and bloop. “Curse Your Blood” has the same DNA but is almost wholly different. Over what sounds like an angry African-accented man making a declaration, thumping bass beats and quick handclaps give rise to echoing accordion-esque moans and two alternating piano chords. You’re tempted to dance, but you simply can’t.

Nearly all of the album’s found voice samples are in foreign tongues, which gives Seplica’s Bedroom an international flavor. And, Lord knows, Fort Worth could use the diversity. Seplica’s Bedroom is the follow-up to 2012’s self-produced debut, Experiments. For the sophomore effort, Richardson was Lantz and Wrinkle’s first choice. “We wanted to have a clearer sound,” Lantz said. “We felt that [Experiments] was so poorly executed. We wanted to go the professional route, and [Richardson] was excited to do something different.”

Tidals will celebrate the release of Seplica’s Bedroom (on cassette tape and digital only) with a performance on Wednesday, April 1, at The Grotto and on Saturday, April 4, in Dallas at the Crown and Harp, but Lantz and Wrinkle have already begun work on their third album. Their new material, Lantz said, is “completely different” and is partly inspired by Lantz’ recent trip to Europe. “It’s just dreamier, more dub-influenced and with guitar parts that weren’t on other records.”

Tidals has been in and out of the Fort Worth home studio of producer John Nuckels, who co-founded North Texas’ most popular and successful dub band, Sub Oslo, and who also is in Wire Nest, a chillwave project with Sub Oslo bandmate Frank Cervantez. Wire Nest: Lantz gets frustrated because every time he tries to book a Tidals show, talent buyers try to set him up with Wire Nest. “We love playing with Wire Nest, but [bookers] can be more creative than that. … I think a [diverse] bill is better than the same three bands sounding alike.”

In Fort Worth, Tidals are “misfits,” Lantz said. “In Dallas, we do well, and the Denton response is much better than in Fort Worth. Fort Worth, they want garage rock. I listen to that too, but we just happen to play electronic music.” - Fort Worth Weekly

Tidals for Avant Garde/Experimental - Fort Worth Weekly

1.) Is there a psilocybin mushroom equivalent for 4/20? If there is, Tidals should be a headliner at that day’s celebratory party. The Fort Worth duo’s ominous sample-based dub and the visuals that often accompany it are enough to make sober people feel like they’re tripping. On Friday, Tidals is releasing its second album, the spellbinding cassette Seplica’s Bedroom, at Lola’s Saloon with pop-rocker Son of Stan, Dallas rapper Blue the Misfit, Dallas “eclectic and electric” Latin-informed synth pop act Supersonic Lips, and Making Movies (which is made of musicians from Mexico, Panama, and, um, Kansas City). Here’s Tidals’ soundcloud page, which you can cue up to some Larry Carlson videos or something else that’s psychedelic. - Fort Worth Weekly

Tidals -- Experiments
The Fort Worth duo's mix of dub and woozy atmospherics sounds like the come-down headspace of a particularly ominous mushroom trip, as sampled film clips chant over soporific keyboard loops, found sounds, and off-kilter beats. If there was a way to score the way your subconscious sorts sensory overload, this is what it would sound like. - Dallas Observer

For a pair that makes music together, it's awfully difficult to find Jeremy Lantz and Josh Wrinkle in the same room. It turns out the Fort Worth electronic duo, who perform as Tidals, only really see each other at their shows.


Between work and traveling, weeks and months might pass by before Wrinkle and Lantz see each other. But they are close collaborators, nonetheless. The pair each works on their own pieces before consulting each other. “He’ll give me the skeleton of what he’s written and he’ll say, 'Hey, I need a rhythm or I need a bass,' and I’ll fill it in, and visa versa. ... It’s like I have a crossword puzzle and I send it to him and I say fill it in."

Wrinkle lived in South Africa and spent time in other countries in the southern region of the continent and considers the area his second home. Afro-Beat, mbaqanga and kwaito — a fusion of house, hip-hop and traditional African rhythms that originated in the '90s — make up a bulk of what Wrinkle listens to. Attentive listeners can pick up on these rhythmic influences in the beats he creates for Tidals. “Travel is so important, experiencing other cultures and ways of life,” says Wrinkle.

Lantz gathers a large part of his inspiration closer to home. “I take a lot of influence from Texas border culture," says Lantz. "It’s a part of our DNA, the cultural hodge podge of Texas. If we were a band from like Ohio, it wouldn’t be there because its not a huge influence on your life there.” He spent a significant amount of time during his childhood visiting an aunt who taught in Mexico and developed a love for the country.

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The first track on Tidals' forthcoming split with fellow Fort Worth electronic soundscaper, Beach Priest, features a song title in Spanish, “La Espina.” Spanish can be heard on other Tidals tracks in the form of samples from old movies.

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But, like his band mate, Lantz sees travel as an essential ingredient to Tidals' music. “There are a lot of songs whose skeleton I’ve written in airports in Germany and random places," he says. "That’s when I feel most creative, is when I’m traveling doing something interesting."


Tidals first started in 2012 after Lantz joined Wrinkle’s former noise band, the Chimeneas, in its last year. A guitarist and a drummer, Wrinkle has played in hardcore and punk bands. Lantz, who had never played in a band before the Chimeneas, describes his partner as being much more of a musician in the traditional sense of the word. Wrinkle might establish an idea for a song based on analog instruments, then reconstruct the sound using things like samplers, effects and processors.

“For me it’s like making a film, lots of textural sounds,” Lantz says. He only bought a synth a couple years ago and prefers to keep his live playing to a minimum. Instead, he creates loops and samples to run through effects.

“He is much more free form. I more so have particular parts that I slightly modify and play off of what he may be creating in the moment,” says Wrinkle.

“I think more visually with the music," adds Lantz. "It’s about textures and kind of building a puzzle. I’m not really a talented musician like Josh. For me it was about learning how to create my own sounds and playing them live."
Each track plays out like a distinct scene in a move, creating the effect of listening to a rich ambient film score. The track “Sleep Department” is about the death of Lantz's dog and uses a sample of his dog right before he was put to sleep. "It's beat-heavy but it is organic in many ways. I don't find that it is cold and empty like a lot of electronic music,” Wrinkle says of the song. “I think we have a different approach than other local electronic acts, although we love playing shows with them.”

In the beginning, there were times Tidals didn’t feel like they truly fit the local scene, especially the Fort Worth music scene, though things are starting to shift with the insurgence of artists like Squanto and Beach Priest. Tidals and Beach Priest plan on playing a pair of release shows for the record, one in Fort Worth and one in Dallas in late August or early September.

“Now I think we’ve carved up a place here [in Fort Worth], and Dallas has always been really receptive to us," says Lantz. "We aren’t as big a city as Dallas, but the music is just as big. Also, I’ve never really felt a rivalry between Dallas and Fort Worth in terms of art and culture. They’ve always been inviting to us and we want them to come here too." - Dallas Observer

For a pair that makes music together, it's awfully difficult to find Jeremy Lantz and Josh Wrinkle in the same room. It turns out the Fort Worth electronic duo, who perform as Tidals, only really see each other at their shows.


Between work and traveling, weeks and months might pass by before Wrinkle and Lantz see each other. But they are close collaborators, nonetheless. The pair each works on their own pieces before consulting each other. “He’ll give me the skeleton of what he’s written and he’ll say, 'Hey, I need a rhythm or I need a bass,' and I’ll fill it in, and visa versa. ... It’s like I have a crossword puzzle and I send it to him and I say fill it in."

Wrinkle lived in South Africa and spent time in other countries in the southern region of the continent and considers the area his second home. Afro-Beat, mbaqanga and kwaito — a fusion of house, hip-hop and traditional African rhythms that originated in the '90s — make up a bulk of what Wrinkle listens to. Attentive listeners can pick up on these rhythmic influences in the beats he creates for Tidals. “Travel is so important, experiencing other cultures and ways of life,” says Wrinkle.

Lantz gathers a large part of his inspiration closer to home. “I take a lot of influence from Texas border culture," says Lantz. "It’s a part of our DNA, the cultural hodge podge of Texas. If we were a band from like Ohio, it wouldn’t be there because its not a huge influence on your life there.” He spent a significant amount of time during his childhood visiting an aunt who taught in Mexico and developed a love for the country.

The first track on Tidals' forthcoming split with fellow Fort Worth electronic soundscaper, Beach Priest, features a song title in Spanish, “La Espina.” Spanish can be heard on other Tidals tracks in the form of samples from old movies.

RELATED STORIES
1919 Hemphill Survives as a DIY Outpost for Young Punks — and the Homeless
Dallas’ Underground Dance Parties Struggle to Survive City Crackdown
Instruments of Creativity: Meet the Maker of "Noise Toys"
But, like his band mate, Lantz sees travel as an essential ingredient to Tidals' music. “There are a lot of songs whose skeleton I’ve written in airports in Germany and random places," he says. "That’s when I feel most creative, is when I’m traveling doing something interesting."


Tidals first started in 2012 after Lantz joined Wrinkle’s former noise band, the Chimeneas, in its last year. A guitarist and a drummer, Wrinkle has played in hardcore and punk bands. Lantz, who had never played in a band before the Chimeneas, describes his partner as being much more of a musician in the traditional sense of the word. Wrinkle might establish an idea for a song based on analog instruments, then reconstruct the sound using things like samplers, effects and processors.

“For me it’s like making a film, lots of textural sounds,” Lantz says. He only bought a synth a couple years ago and prefers to keep his live playing to a minimum. Instead, he creates loops and samples to run through effects.

“He is much more free form. I more so have particular parts that I slightly modify and play off of what he may be creating in the moment,” says Wrinkle.

“I think more visually with the music," adds Lantz. "It’s about textures and kind of building a puzzle. I’m not really a talented musician like Josh. For me it was about learning how to create my own sounds and playing them live."

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Each track plays out like a distinct scene in a move, creating the effect of listening to a rich ambient film score. The track “Sleep Department” is about the death of Lantz's dog and uses a sample of his dog right before he was put to sleep. "It's beat-heavy but it is organic in many ways. I don't find that it is cold and empty like a lot of electronic music,” Wrinkle says of the song. “I think we have a different approach than other local electronic acts, although we love playing shows with them.”

In the beginning, there were times Tidals didn’t feel like they truly fit the local scene, especially the Fort Worth music scene, though things are starting to shift with the insurgence of artists like Squanto and Beach Priest. Tidals and Beach Priest plan on playing a pair of release shows for the record, one in Fort Worth and one in Dallas in late August or early September.

“Now I think we’ve carved up a place here [in Fort Worth], and Dallas has always been really receptive to us," says Lantz. "We aren’t as big a city as Dallas, but the music is just as big. Also, I’ve never really felt a rivalry between Dallas and Fort Worth in terms of art and culture. They’ve always been inviting to us and we want them to come here too."


Tidals enjoy music way more than this photos suggests. We think.
Tidals enjoy music way more than this photos suggests. We think.
Courtesy Tidals
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MUSIC FEATURE STORIES - Dallas Observer