Tunng

As far as fusion genres go, folktronica weighs in on the especially silly side (although it’s not the worst, as we recently read up on a band bizarrely described as “progtronica”). And while it’s an accurate starting point for the music of Tunng—which does indeed supplement intimate, acoustic songs with electronic overlays and beats—there’s something to be said for a group which can transcend the sum of its parts.

And confound them as well. The British sextet’s third album, Good Arrows (just released in this country on Thrill Jockey), uses the cool, robotic tools of electronic music to create something warm and inviting—one track, “Arms,” uses beats carefully assembled from a crackling bonfire. Another, “Hands,” does the opposite: Starting out as a simple song about a doctor who has lost a patient, it becomes increasingly uncomfortable, as shuffling ambient noises in the background make you slowly question his motives. Vocal harmonies and film dialogue snippets ebb and flow, easing your ears into a lull as they build complex lyrical diagrams for your imagination.

Like similarly minded artists the Books, Tunng on record isn’t the same as Tunng in concert: When we saw the group earlier this year, three guitars were flanked by a laptop beatmaker to the left, and someone on the right playing bells with his feet and brushing stalks of wheat across a microphone. They were in perfect sync, as if it was the most organic thing in the world.