Exhaustasaurus

Tal M. Klein is an artist who has refused to be constrained by the limitations of any particular genre. He's known for his trip hop work as Trancenden, his chill out project Bovine Transmissions, his sleazy stylings with Anthony Mansfield as AM/TM, and of course his party breaks records with Slim Goodgroove as one half of the Sly Players. But when releasing work under his own name, the most consistent musical attributes of a Tal M. Klein song do not include a snug genre fit, but rather quality and creativity.

Half a decade in the making, having withstood hard drive failures, a studio robbery, and the assiduous scrutiny of its composer, the music on Exhaustasaurus traverses leftward leaning, deeper elements of disco and house. To get on the album, each track needed to both stand out on its own and yet conform to vibe of the whole, such that the album would be a complete listening experience – not so much a narrative arc, rather a string of eleven thoughts simultaneously catalyzed by a single epiphany.

Exhaustasaurus is vastly different from anything Tal has done before – perhaps because it was conceived and created in lieu of REM sleep. A session in the studio could only be achieved on a weekday after work, after family time, after children and spouse comfortable in cribs and beds, with the menace of an early morning commute crouched behind an ever approaching horizon. Completing each song was akin to squeezing water from a rock. Often times Tal would awaken on the studio floor, a loop repeating in his headphones, having passed out of utter exhaustion. These songs are waking dreams and nightmares, requiems to rest and contentment, streams of consciousness (and sometimes unconsciousness) assembled and composed like a mélange of memories, hallucinations, and meditations.

This is an album born out life's increasing gravitational pull on us as we age – jobs, family, chores.. Trying to find the time to find ourselves among all of our obligations. In Tal's case, one day after a sleepless night caring for a teething baby, upon returning home from a long day at the office, followed by a fruitless session at the recording studio, Tal's wife asked him how he felt. He responded, "If I was a dinosaur, I'd be an Exhaustasaurus" (Thus giving a name to his self-imposed insomnia).