’ve been looking for hours now, trying to find the best avenue to reach the guys in Tussle. See, I’ve got some doctor bills I feel they’re directly responsible for. It all started when I began listening to their new album, Kling Klang. Each time it ended, I played it again, not even noticing what I was doing. This happened for at least a half a day. The next day, the same thing happened. My life was just Kling Klang all day long. By the end of day three, I was dizzy like you wouldn’t believe. I think I’d been bobbing my head subconsciously since I started listening to the record, because suddenly my Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi bobbleheads seemed more in-step than ever.

It seems that Tussle has created the perfect background music dance album. It’s inoffensive, instrumental, and surprisingly addicting. Writing something for school? Put the Tussle album on and leave repeat checked in your Winamp. You’ll barely notice it. Well, you will notice the fact that you can’t stop moving when you’re listening to it. Even now, as I’m writing the review and listening to the album one last time, I’m tapping my fingers against my legs. This is getting out of hand.

Unfortunately, it’s not the perfect dance album. It’s just perfectly easy to listen to. The songs flow seamlessly into one another while managing to not sound identical. It’s no easy feat for an album slightly over 41 minutes, but problems do emerge over its length.

Tussle is comprised of a bassist and two percussionists. That’s the whole band. As such, there’s not a lot happening. Most of them are merely smooth mid-tempo dance-rock that throw in some echo-y dub noises. Stuff that’s guaranteed to get all of your stoner friends riled up while you dance the day away.

The album hits potently in a few places. Album opener “Here It Comes,” foreshadows the the oncoming 41 minutes rather nicely with its handclaps and jittery background percussion. The title is a nice touch too.

After that, “Ghost Barber” stands out only because the song really does sound like a robot is getting his hair cut at a dance club, the background percussion clips away like scissors as another steady bass line holds the song up.

Overall, Kling Klang is a fine record. It’s not nearly as satisfying as some other instrumental endeavors (Tortoise’s TNT and DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing come to mind), it has the advantage of being a lot more danceable than either of those albums. It’s also quite harmless, which works in its favor. I’m not sure how long it’ll last, but I wouldn’t mind putting this on late at night when I’m sitting down to write a paper, if only because it’ll distract me just enough to be interesting, but not too much so that I won’t be concentrating on the actual work I’m doing. Now if I could just get them to pay my masseuse bills. My neck is killing me over here.