Adam Hachey writes under the name tunnel traffic but we’ve met him before playing as part of a band called Meesh – enthusiastically reviewed by Backseat Mafia a few years back (sadly unavailable on the site at the moment). tunnel traffic have now released an album entitled MEESH just to confuse things, but one thing is clear: Hachey’s beautiful, low-fi musings continue to impress. Assisted on vocals in a few songs by Jacky Muñoz (also appearing on the old MEESH recordings), with bass guitar by Harshith D’mello, Hachey otherwise wrote, recorded and played on all songs.
Once being self-described as anti-folk, Hachey’s songs are nonetheless redolent of Sufjan Stevens or even Conor Mockasin – little vignettes of life over a mostly acoustic jangle: witness first song on the album, “Lesson Learned”:
“Familiar” features Muñoz on vocals and is for me a stand out – a certain beautiful melancholic tunes with a bit more of a quiet/loud thundery spine that reminds me of Pixies/Breeders:
Songs like “Maxwell” vears into psychedelic territory with Hachey’s honest expressive, emotional lyrics:
The album is both creative and inventive while remaining highly accessible and very diverse. “Monument”, for example is a short sharp blast of sound sampling some old Meesh songs.
The album ends with “Memorial”: a simply beautiful, anthemic and plaintiff song with both Hachey and Muñoz singing that has all the passion and magnificence of anything by Arcade Fire:
This is a gorgeous album, a low-fi, understated and very personal document from an artist that continues to fascinate. MEESH is out now and you can order here.
