In one way, Yves Tumor isn’t particularly accessible. Aside from a brief phone interview with the New York Times in 2020, the Miami musician (who uses they/them pronouns) appears to have only spoken in print twice: once to gold-toothed French fashion icon Michèle Lamy and once to alt-rock firebrand Courtney Love. Love described them in Interview magazine as follows: “The reason I think we’re a good match is because you’re disagreeable and I’m disagreeable and we’re both incredibly othered and you don’t seem to have much of an interest in being fucking warm, fuzzy, and user-friendly.”
Tumor, whose real name, Sean Bowie, also sounds like it might be a glamorous alias, didn’t disagree. But musically, despite the intimidating title of their fourth studio album, there’s plenty that could be classed as user-friendly here. Having started out making experimental, sometimes frightening electronic music, as their stature has grown they’ve adopted an increasingly accessible indie rock sound. The opening song, God is a Circle, begins with some urgent sampled breathing but that fades quickly beneath a punky bassline, basic live drum beat and squalls of electric guitar.
