Captain Tallen & the Benevolent Entities
[Read The Ugly Hug’s “Be So Nice” single premiere here]
Crisp, evocative, and necessary, Captain Tallen & the Benevolent Entities do not play too roughly with listeners because they know that we are also damaged and the glue is still drying. Like birds, they know that the hollow bones are the only thing keeping us light enough to remain in the air – which might be part of the reason their music floats, too.
The Brooklyn-based band is led by vocalist and cellist Tallen Gabriel, the mahogany-rasp that colors the music, and the brain behind the lyricism that betrays Gabriel’s daytime gig as a typewriter poet for hire (call him). Captain Tallen’s imagery-heavy, often autobiographical lyrics are vulnerable yet tough, unafraid and uncorny. “NYE,” the opening track on the band’s first EP, unfurls with, “You told me what you want; I mistakenly interpreted your confession as instructions on how to love you.”
“Easy, Then” features Immanuel Pennington on percussion, Leche Malo on guitar and piano, Dominic LaMorte on upright bass, and Danielle Sorokin on synth. The chorus of backing vocals comes from the combined talents of Maryam Said, Malo, and Sorokin. Together, Captain Tallen & the Benevolent Entities meld inventories of thought, welcoming world-weary pollinators in like a flower’s sticky gynoecium – a nourishing place of rest, but also a challenge of work still yet to be done.
- Autumn Swiers