Tryonics is the solo project of Hap Richardson, formerly of My Little Pony, Go Victim, and Freezer Child. It is completely a one-man affair as Hap not only provided all the music and vocals but also recorded and mixed it as well. When I asked him for a press release, he told me there wasn’t one, but that the album was recorded in a remote far north shack surrounded by Māori land, an attempt at country, from an experimental, post rock musician more used to the density of the city. In that respect this 9-track 19-minute-long album is a success as the post rock influences are very strong indeed, and while I would not think of this as country in the traditional sense there are strong elements of alt-country and some additional nuances here and there which reinforces the country connection.
As one can tell from the album length, some of these songs are quite short, with only one breaking the three-minute barrier (closer Morning After), while there are a couple under a minute. Opener Free Range really sets out his stall as it is packed with alt-country styles yet there is also a heavily distorted and fuzzed guitar right at the front which probably has more to do with grunge than what one would normally associate with the more sedate genres, but then that is taken over by a filthy steel which takes distortion and slide to a new level, and one can easily imagine MC5 having fun with this. Contrast that with the next song, Chasing Tail, which is far more sedate and even contains some interesting falsetto harmony vocals, yet is only 53 seconds in length. This segues into Can You Dance and originally, I felt it was a section change in a song as opposed to a new one, such is the way it sneaks in.
One often gets the impression that he is hitting the strings on his acoustic quite hard, much more in a rock manner than a country, and because he is coming into the genre from the more experimental post rock area, he has no issue at all with adding keyboards and electric guitars in a way which would not normally be considered. This album is probably too far out in left field for country fans but will be of interest to those who want their rock to have more colour and be different to the norm.
Rating: 6/10
