Jimmy Tamborello, known as Dntel to most, has been making music for more than a decade. In 2001, he had the indie world buzzing when he released Life Is Full Of Possibilities, making him one of the most notable figures in the turn-of-the-century glitch scene. Commercial success hit Tamborello as one half of the Postal Service, the other half being Ben Gibbard of Death Cab For Cutie. The sole Postal Service album, Give Up, is Sub Pop’s second best-selling record to date, and the “Such Great Heights” single was used on TV shows and covered by Iron & Wine, whose version in turn made it onto the Garden State soundtrack. Tamborello has worked with artists from Conor Oberst to Grizzly Bear, and he still engineers electronic music and hosts an internet radio show. On Dntel’s latest album, Aimlessness (Pampa), he dialed back the guest vocals, focused on instrumentals and made an ethereal, spaced-out electro album. Tamborello will also be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with him.
Tamborello: This is a relatively new label started by a producer originally from Kansas City called Fire For Effect. While browsing Bandcamp, their ’90s computer animation chill-out imagery caught my eye (lots of computer-generated ocean and spheres). Ugh, I’m terrible at describing music, but I can hear jungle, rave and footwork influences in this stuff, with a lot of aquatic sounds and pop-music samples thrown in. They call it “seapunk.” I don’t know much else, but I found one blog that says they wear shell necklaces and Hawaiian shirts and dye their hair aquamarine. My favorite artist on the roster so far is Indigo Bunting from Kansas City. He leans a little heavier on pretty melodic stuff.
Video after the jump.
