Once

のちにBEACHWOOD SPARKSへも派生し、90年代のLAインディ・シーンを牽引したFURTHERのギター/ヴォーカルDARREN RADEMAKERを中心に、実弟ベーシストBRENT RADEMAKERらによって結成されたカリフォルニア拠点の5人組、THE TYDE。FELTやTHE BYRDSを敬愛する彼らが放つサウンドは、サーフ・カルチャーの開放感とネオアコ譲りの繊細なメロディが溶け合う至高のインディ・ポップです。

元FURTHER組で当時BEACHWOOD SPARKSのメンバーでもあったBRENTとギタリストCHRISTOPHER GUNSTらも全面参加し、当時の西海岸シーンの蜜月を象徴する2001年発表の1ST。DARREN RADEMAKERによる気だるくも甘いヴォーカルと12弦ギター煌めきが織りなすサイケデリックなテクスチャーが、今も色褪せない輝きを放つ傑作です。
ゆるやかで柔らかにきらめくポップ・チューン"ALL MY BASTARD CHILDREN"、夕暮れ時の海岸線を想起させる幽玄な仕上がりの"GET AROUND TOO"、疾走するカントリー・フォーク・ロック"NORTH COUNTRY TIMES"、サイケ・フォークの気配を纏った"SILVER'S OKAY MICHELLE"など全9曲。サンディエゴの北に位置するビーチ・シティ、当時の制作拠点となったエンシニータスの空気を封じ込めるように、瑞々しくも内省的なフォーク・ロックの質感がサーフィンへの愛とともに充満。アルバム全体を貫くアンニュイな情感と抑制の効いたアンサンブルが、本作を時代を超越したマイルストーンたらしめています。

Like Beachwood Sparks (with whom they share three band members: Chris Gunst, Dave Scher and Brent Rademaker), the Tyde have struck a mother lode of gold sounds with an excellent debut, mining California's rustic cosmic Americana, psych-pop, and canyon rock for something that sounds wholly refreshing and of its own time. N.M.E. wrote that the Tyde capture the spirit and "wild mercury jangle" of Felt, while Melody Maker referred to the band as "frazzled Dylan obsessives," sounding like Bob "before the motorbike accident, caught in a druggy haze as the summer hits of the '60s wash against him." In addition to these reverent points of reference, there are hints that vocalist/guitarist Darren Rademaker (Brent's older brother -- both were in the '90s California rock band Further) likely has LPs by the Band, the Rolling Stones, Lou Reed, Lloyd Cole, Pavement, and maybe even Brinsley Schwarz' Silver Pistol stacked up near a vintage turntable in his living room. Darren's gift for penning smart/sardonic lyrics is evident throughout. The opening track, "All My Bastard Children," drips with poisonous venom while recalling infidelities by an ex-girlfriend ("You couldn't resist, touching one of them, so young and thin!"), while the loping, Byrds-ian "Strangers Again" sounds like an attempt to heal that same wounded heart. Along with Darren's dusky vocals, these sublime, mostly bucolic reveries are highlighted by swirling organs, lap steel, organ, Rhodes piano, and Benjamin Knight's guitar solos -- especially on "Your Tattoos." The Tyde's magnum opus, however, is the nearly ten-minute closer, "Silver's Okay Michelle" -- inspired, in part, by Michelle Kwan, the figure-skating teen who failed to bring home Olympic gold in the 1990s. Cascading, shimmering waves of guitars bring the song to its apex before slow-fading into blissful oblivion. Once is worthy of repeated drops of your needle. ~ Bryan Thomas