It’s easy to be quite dismissive in the face of distinction. It feels coveted and, naturally, we see it seldom applied. And when it is, we sometimes find ourselves suspicious and hesitant - thinking of every way it couldn’t possibly be as good as you imagine. ‘Details’, in parity with the work of Tamzene generally, completely flips that script.
But you’ll find when listening, that the EP guides that flip in a way that is kind, gentle, and ends with the script, deep down, always wanting to be flipped anyway. Emotion, as Tamzene would put it, is exclusively what she deals in.
We sometimes, also, become quite protective of our love. ‘Details’ intimately reminds you of all the reasons why. Through the entire experience of the songs and their writing (the latter of which is utterly outstanding), you are reassured that there are things in this world - this record being one - that will entirely capture your love and let it rest comfortably; safely.
Maybe it’s because her songwriting builds worlds so transcendentally accurate to emotions we otherwise bury away, that the effort it takes to sit down, open up and share in vulnerability with Tamzene is rewarding in the most homely and cathartic way. It’s through eliciting these emotions, which Tamzene herself embodies throughout the EP, that bring it to a place of overwhelming comfort - after you get through the discomfort of being unexpectedly and totally emotionally exposed in the best of ways.
‘Details’ seems to always dig deeper than you normally feel music should go, and so when you hear the soft rhythmic kick on Called You Out, you can’t help but naturally hear a heartbeat, because that’s where this EP assiduously sits. There are atmospheric, reverberated sounds throughout ‘Details’ that individually build meaningful auditory spaces that feel far away - Only an Ocean being an outstanding example - but together give this EP a very close, cohesive feel. The misty echoes and clever, quiet vocal layers in the context of the cover-to-cover sound place you in what feels like the middle of an empty sanctuary with just you, those feelings you’ve been trying to ignore and somehow Tamzene through these six tracks telling you exactly what it all means.
There’s an overridingly calm sound, of course, to ‘Details’, but rather than it being one that sedates you it’s often one that brings you fully alive to the ideas and emotions at play. Tamzene’s storytelling comes as a highlight as well, because the EP feels deeply personal, but at the same time you can almost hear through the verses themselves all of the other people who will listen to this, and who will feel in their own ways what it means too. It goes far enough to demonstrate that what you have in front of you is some serious talent, but just far enough to let you in on the secret that no structured body of work would truly reflect the talent that went into these six songs. It’s pleasing to think that one of the very fundamental points of a good Extended Play is what we see in bright lights from the EP.
And this is a nice, neat way to sum up a lot of what we hear on ‘Details’, and beyond. Tamzene’s work seems to expose the core of what it means to make music that catalyses emotion. It kind of feels weird that this is so easily accessible at the mere click of a button; it feels kind of wrong that we don’t do a bit more as listeners to deserve it all. It’s that kind of EP that inspires the listen every single time.
In a musical landscape of soundbites and quickly-does-it, ‘Details’ comes with a refreshing sound that feels nostalgic and novel. We feel the build up, we hear her drawn out notes, we’re at peace with singular and isolated sounds. The details of ‘Details’, as you get through the tracks, amass to this sense of bastion-ship Tamzene has for this sound in the contemporary.
With ‘Details’ vulnerability is cool, and emotion is the newest trend.
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