AV Club premieres new TTNG track “Coconut Crab”

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photo: Nick Sayers

Oxford’s TTNG (a.k.a. This Town Needs Guns) has been working up dashing math-rock compositions for over a decade, but it’s always avoided being pigeonholed. And on Disappointment Islandcoming July 8 on Sargent House—the trio’s offered up its most accessible, pop-minded batch of songs yet. The A.V. Club is premiering the album’s opening track, “Coconut Crab,” below, and it shows TTNG at its most streamlined. Guitarist Tim Collis still concocts inhuman riffs, the likes of which make it hard to believe he’s the band’s lone guitarist. It makes bassist-vocalist Henry Tremain’s ability to find space for sing-along melodies all the more notable, as he flutters atop the ornate composition and never lets the song’s knotty rhythms get the best of him. Tremain also wrote a lengthy explanation of the song’s genesis, along with demos of the track, all of which can be found here.

Pre-orders for Disappointment Island are available now.

Visit AV Club to read about the origins of the song and hear early demos