Tz, Ka EP – Inner Tongue (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

The saying goes “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade” not quite the right adage but close enough. The mysterious artist known only as Inner Tongue was handed the biggest lemon a music artist could receive when the convalescing period after an operation on his vocal chords resulted in a protracted period of silence. But rather that seeing this as the end of a chapter, he chose to make it the beginning of a new one. Initially writing music that could produce melodic tension without vocals, when his voice did return this evolved into some wonderfully progressive music.

Tz, Ka is a suite of three songs that wonderfully combines a chilled serenity with more energetic bursts, is built from cutting edge electronica as well as classical piano lines and plays with late night pop sensibilities and reflective moods. Although we have already featured lead single Fallen Empire on the site, it is closing song Somebody Knows It that provides the real gem of the collection, a slow burning piano piece that evolves into a subtle world of subdued backbeats and ambient washes of synth. It is also a song that acts as the launch pad for the re-birth of the artist, being the first song he recorded once the gift of voice had returned to him.