T.G. Olson - Revisionist Western




I keep meaning to write a post on the occasional flirtations metal has had with what might be called "western music" (not country music, more like the kind of music that scores western films) and, were I to do that, T.G. Olson's band Across Tundras would, no doubt, be front and center in that conversation. However, he's gone ahead and released a solo album called "Revisionist Western" so I guess I have to write something about it before I get to that, huh?

Olson is, as mentioned, the main performer in the long-running and criminally underrated psychedelic-western-post-metal-rock-whatever band Across Tundras. Their output over the last two decades has been consistently incredible and it's baffling to me that they haven't been given their critical due for such a remarkable, ongoing body of work. Olson was also in some pretty good hardcore bands back in the day, most notably The Spirit of Versailles, who I saw absolutely crush a set at a venue called The Odum, in Chicago, which I'm sure doesn't do shows anymore. 

All this to say that Olson knows his way around a riff, and has for some time.

"Revisionist Western" is a psychedelic work of instrumental, reverb and tremolo-drenched guitar drones that fits into a genre I would call "Themes For Imaginary Westerns." Similar to how a lot of good synthwave ends up sounding like the soundtrack to some lost 80s slasher flick, there's a whole genre of laid-back, dusty, arpeggiated riffing, exemplified by Earth, but also getting a cred-boost from Godspeed You! Black Emperor's first two full lengths, which engaged in it a little bit, that feel like they should be scoring a really sparse, apocalyptic western filmed in Andalusia from 1972. Olson is a master of this sort of sound, and on "Revisionist Western" he works at the peak of his ability to craft the sort of wind-swept vibe you expect from an album in this genre. The whole thing has a vaguely improvisational feel to it, with little in the way of a beat or song structure giving the songs any rigidity of form. Rather than coherent songs, made up of distinct parts, the album plays out as a series of moods and tone pieces that you could, quite easily, have on as background music while you did something else or which you could (as I have multiple times now), settle in with some headphones on to focus on the sonic depth that Olson wrings from a relatively limited number of notes and instruments. 

Someday, I do hope to get around to writing that piece on the intersection of heavy music and western sounds. Until I do, you'll get halfway to the ultimate thesis of that piece by listening to some of Olson's output. Revisionist Western is as good of a place to any to start, as he absolutely nails the sound, here. The album is even NYP on Bandcamp, so you have no excuse to not dive in.

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