Graham Reynolds - The Tick-Tock Club (2021)

Part movie soundtrack, part crime jazz, part classical tribute, part boisterous rock & roll, The Tick-Tock Club is easily the most ambitious of the Golden Arm Trio's three releases and its first in six years. It might initially sound like a hodgepodge, but GAT ringmaster Graham Reynolds and his revolving ATX ensemble have interwoven various streams and motifs that return in different guises. One theme appears as an orchestral piece in "The End of Speedy Jinx" and later as a Raymond Scott cartoon romp on "Disco." Likewise, the frenetic, horn-driven title track reappears as a cello/piano sonata on "Greyhound." The album bookends nicely with two different reflections on Reynolds' tribute to Shostakovich, one as minimalism, the other florally orchestral. The footloose spirit of rock & roll ties it altogether into a messy but delectable whole. -Austin Chronicle

Much of the album is imbued with the same frenetic energy, although tracks such as He Likes An Eyewitness provide an effective counterweight, rich in quiet menace with a simple, brooding melody and rain-on-concrete soundscape. Similarly, the downbeat opener, Dmitri Dmitryevich, exudes a feeling of sinister melancholy, as if Peter Lorre had been reincarnated as a pair of double basses with a hint of synth undertone. -BBC