Ever picture yourself on a secluded, pristine beach filtering chalky white sand between your toes as the setting sun liquefies skies into tangerine explosions? The soundtrack to that enviable vista is ‘A Walk’ by Tycho and epitomised the band’s chillwave charisma at their 170 Russell show.
Electrogaze outfit Tycho breezed into Melbourne for their national tour forerunning Laneway Festival to blast us into an atmospheric, ambient soundscape. The crowd at 170 Russell was peak Melbourne; a real mixed bag. Tycho’s music has a penetrating, vibrate-your-core ethos that wraps your soul and unifies you with your fellow human. From the crowd’s mood, you could easily form a lasting friendship with anyone in that room; indeed, your soul mate may unknowingly be standing 10 metres from you. Vibe on ‘Daydream’ and tell me I’m wrong.
I listen to Tycho probably once a week. ‘Awake’ when waking up, ‘Division’ for a Sunday sesh, and their sumptuous record ‘Dive’ to get me through dreaded writing blocks. Touring their latest record ‘Epoch’ (and the final piece to their Awake-Dive-Epoch record trilogy), Tycho treated us to a captivating set of dreamy, percussive euphoria. ‘Local’ from Epoch hit all the right feels. In fact, every one of their tracks live is seamless.
Tycho in the studio is the brainchild of musician Scott Hansen, who is also artist ISO50, but Tycho on tour is a (super tight) live band. Drummer Rory O’Connor, a.k.a Nitemoves, who was also the warmup act, is his own well-oiled machine, popping explosive triplets like fireworks to punctuate the swelling synths and echoing guitar riffs.
Seeing Tycho live makes you wish you had chromaesthesia (perceiving sound as colour). Chromaesthesia synaesthetes would have a photismic wet dream. For those that could see the stage through the packed crowd, the looping, kaleidoscopic colour backdrop paired with scintillating, organic synth keys layered over double time percussion melted you from the inside out. Collages of nebulous solar forays saturated with technicolour filters reminded you of the holiday you never knew you needed until that beat drop cast you into sonic ether. Comfortably numb.
Listening to Tycho on repeat with headphones is the prescription for happy daze, but experiencing them transform their sound live is your new high.
Ate: Photisms and electrogaze.
Drank: Heineken.
– Matt M.
Matt is a mad scientist by day and beer connoisseur by night. When he’s not devouring a new set of craft beers you will find him in a dankly lit room plotting his approach at the next alcohol-related festival.
Check out Tycho on their national tour for St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival.
