TAFF - BEAT - POCALYPSE

TAFF is the side project of an anonymous Italian drummer and composer who has been active in the underground scene for quite a while. Currently active in Milan, TAFF has described the project as being written with nothing more than electronics and acoustic drums. Thus the project's debut album "BEAT - POCALYPSE" was born out of that creative philosophy. The seven track album contains six original songs as well as a cover of Graham Coxon's 'I Don't Wanna Go Out'. 

'Distance' begins off the album and the post-punk influences on it are written on its sleeves; fuzzy synths and drums take over the majority of the song as TAFF's vocals go from clean to echoed. It's not a song that's going to break boundaries or survive on a playlist of mine, but it gets the job done to say the very least. The following, song, however, was one that I began to skip after my third play. I found the piano-sounding base rhythm to be way too repetitive and annoying. Sure, it does dissipate at certain areas of the song, but every time it returned it was a nuance and a displeasure. 



The chaotic nature of 'As we want' bore nothing that was pleasing to my ear; the experimental song travels between minimal synth work to cymbal heavy acoustic sessions with electronic notes that are none too exciting. 'Loop' presented an interesting, beat-driven song where the flow was fairly decent. I wasn't a fan of TAFF's vocals on this track; they sounded way too monotonous and dry. Both 'Presumption' and 'Charlie' presented somewhat atmospheric tracks, but I didn't feel as if anything held together all that well. If anything, the best song on the EP by far is TAFF's cover of Graham Coxon's 'I Don't Wanna Go Out'. I somewhat expected this as 'I Don't Wanna Go Out' has definitive pace and structure in comparison to TAFF's experimental nature, but I still prefer the original over the cover. 

TAFF's "BEAT - POCALYPSE", then, sounds like an amalgamation of ideas that was not put together as well as it should have been. Throughout my six-or-so listens on the EP, I always felt as if the electronics were at war with the drums; neither of the two play well with one another. That could be due in part of TAFF's experimental nature; nonetheless I cannot excuse what my ears do not enjoy. As shown on their Graham Coxon cover, TAFF can put together a decent track; they certainly have the skills and ability to do so. I'm just not seeing that on any of their original compositions thus far. All of this is paired with TAFF's hit or miss vocals; sometimes they sound decent, other times they sound awful. So, at the end of the day, with the cons outweighing the pros, I give this EP a 4.5 out of 10. 

This review was commissioned through our Ko-fi page.
Apr 18 2021