Cartwheel, the excellent new album from New York band Hotline TNT, begins with the sort of dreamy, pitch-bent chords that will be instantly familiar to anyone partial to Ride, Slowdive or My Bloody Valentine. Familiar too, 30 seconds later, is the sudden squall of feedback that disrupts that moment of peacefulness, not to mention the wave of huge, distorted guitar that crashes in straight after. Yes, we’re in shoegaze territory here, and it’s a joyful racket.
Which isn’t to say that Hotline TNT, the project of New York-based musician Will Anderson (also responsible for the similarly fuzzy, similarly good 2010s band Weed), is some sort of nostalgia act. On Cartwheel, surprises are around every corner: strange patches of ambient wash, an occasional burst of drum’n’bass. It’s that enticing mix of old and new that has earned the album a mountain of praise since it was released last week, including Pitchfork’s much-coveted Best New Music tag.
