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Mar 27, 2019 Tamino By Haydon Spenceley

We at Under the Radar are a little late on the scene with Tamino but, fresh from wowing many at SXSW, it seems timely to draw attention to the debut album, Amir. Hailing from Belgium, it would be easy on first listen to mistakenly dismiss Tamino as merely a Jeff Buckley-esque purveyor of vocal pyrotechnics, but to do so would be to potentially miss out on one of the depth of one of the finest debut albums of recent times and to miss the opportunity to get in early on the career of a singer/songwriter who seems destined to become one of the finest voices of his generation. Don’t believe me? Just put on “Habibi,” the album’s emotional opener. Go on, give it five minutes of your time. And then come back and tell me that it is not one of the deepest, most powerful songs you’ve heard in recent times. When you’ve done that, the rest of my review will be rendered virtually meaningless as you’ll be in deep with Tamino and everything that Amir has to offer, but in case you still need to be convinced, here’s the rest of my pitch.

The rolling “Chambers,” with its murky instrumentation rising and falling in the background, giving the perfect platform for a finely controlled vocal performance? That’s a good one right there. Then there’s “Indigo Night,” with its intricate guitar figure, which Tamino follows vocally, taking off the roof in the process as the song builds to a gorgeous conclusion—you can’t fail to love it. The tension of “Each Time,” calling to mind Tamino’s Egyptian and Lebanese heritage in its melodic and harmonic choices, is a beautiful moment. The fact that it is followed by the deceptively simple “Verses” merely goes to show the depth and breadth of Tamino’s talent and potential.

It really would be possible to fulsomely eulogize over each and every song, but you don’t need me to do that. What you need me to do is to remind you to make it a priority to listen to, and then buy, this wonderful album. (www.taminomusic.com)

Author rating: 8/10