Please note this is an old page and Fly Global Music has now moved. Please follow this link and search for the entry in the new site.

Natalie Tusia Beridz (aka TBA) is a electronic musician and film director from Tbilisi, Georgia and a member of Goslab group of multimedia artists, musicians and other talented types.

Pending is her first album since 2007’s Size And Tears that was her fifth album for the Max Ernst label. So is the debut on the Laboratory Instinct label (you may remember, this is the label that released Daedelus’ A Gent Agent album.)

So is it Pending finding a new label? Is it Pending some direction? Well possibly yes and no, the opening track has certainly some early Daedelus reference points for instance but generally the music of Pending is a hybrid (rather than mish-mash) of range of electronic genres from ambient (mainly) to techno to experimental to post-synth pop.

After recent thoughts on Eno (see Athens), Pending is the embodiment of ambient progression, particularly ‘Come To Kiss Me’ with it’s synth vs. piano sample that is the best of the set in a Michael Nyman/Steve Reichesque sense.

‘I Don’t Know Why’ uses a harder synth beat it’s like a modern Donna Summer feeling love in (or on) the underground; or as the sleeve notes say, it feels like “Underworld on helium” (see again Underworld’s latest compilation, Athens). It’s definitely one of the most instant tracks on the album with and upbeat stuttering (if not broken) drum programme and Natalie’s whispering vocals.

The album’s cover (by fellow Gerogian and musician Nika Machaidze) hints to a post-Soviet cinematic art school and ‘Good Night Tokyo’ is unfortunately a few years late for the Lost In Translation soundtrack but it’s like a drugged up Scarlet that’s as hypnotic as the actress herself (especially if your into the flicker of 35mm reels).

‘X It (Endo)’ is the first of the filmscape ambient tracks, ‘Isole’ has a funeral scene feel to it and ‘Everything Pushes Me Further Away’ is straight from the steel works with drop hammer. Even then, something similarly harsh like ‘Cuts Vs Ignorance’ that’s dark techno at one level, has a light top shade of synth or ‘Legotak’ with a stutter lullaby (these last three all have shades of our hero Daedelus in his early guise).

And the variety on this album stem from her talent, she even can force some hip-hop beats, jazzy vibes, strings and ping-pong efx into something that sounds quite ‘pop’ when she sings/voices “normally” as on ‘Fallin Suga’.

The album ends on a neo-classical piano piece which sort of sums up this album in a strange way; Pending success, acclaim, recognition? All should come soon to this future star.

P.S. Nika Machaidze’s re-released albums as a 2 CD set is out now on Laboratory Instinct - see review HERE.

Hectic Mix nominations: ‘To ‘Hell Risers”, ‘Cuts Vs Ignorance’, ‘Fallin Suga’, ‘Legotek’, ‘Everything Pushes Me Further Away’

Reviewed - TBA / Natalie Beridze - Pending (Laboratory Instinct) Cat. No. LI015CD Release date: 14th December 2009
1 To ‘Hell Risers’ (5:11)
2 Don’t Know Why (5:00)
3 Good Night Tokyo (5:39)
4 X. It (Endno) (3:01)
5 Cuts Vs Ignorance (4:40)
6 Come To Kiss Me (8:08)
7 Fallin Suga (4:15)
8 Isole (4:32)
9 Everything Pushes Me Further Away (3:26)
10 Beside You (5:38)
11 Legotek (6:07)
12 Dancing In Love Vox (6:49)
13 Ice Turns End (3:17)

Links:
myspace.com/tusiaberidze
laboratroyinstinct.com
www.samurai.fm/laboratoryinstinct