Tyler Kamen ‘Bamboozle Tesseract’
Tyler Kamen is a creative genius, who never ceases to surprise. With 15 records and counting, Kamen is already onto his next adventurous trilogy, starting with Bamboozle Tesseract. Filled with eccentric, polyrhythmic madness and bombastic soundscapes, Bamboozle Tesseract spirals into the storm of a wild, dystopian nightmare, a mind-opening odyssey with awe-filled sceneries, unexpected twists, illusive suspense and danger in a futuristic world. The love of technology is intertwined with 80s’ retro aesthetic. Bamboozle Tesseract creates such strange and familiar experience, placing you into a world of mirrors that gazes into danger and future, yet still entangled with the past.
“Introduction - Future X” immediately evokes a mixture of warmth, bizarreness and a sense of belonging of a distant village, delving into the thematic title song. There’s so much life and heart in the pulsing melodies and reverberant rhythms that is hard for one to set oneself apart from the vibrant life form and society that exists in this distant land. A hint of strangeness and suspense that creep from the undertone still reminds you of its illusive nature. “Gnome City Labs” gives the first glimpse of potential danger. Despite the fatal mistake, Kamen weaves a perspective of awe and appreciation that makes you linger in this otherworldly world he creates in sounds. In destruction, one can’t help but being hit emotionally along.
With his long-loved guitar-driven texture scattered in the background, Bamboozle Tesseract evokes a distinct groove and atmosphere compare to Kamen’s previous offerings. The polyrhythmic maze opens up your body and mind to new adventures. It’s stirring and terrifying at first, but it’s like learning a new language, eventually, everything just cracks wide open and you’ll see a whole world hidden in there. There’s a entire civilization living in the maze of rhythms, codes of spirituality and intelligence in recurring themes. Bamboozle Tesseract is marvelous. The album intricately draws you a series of events down the timeline, at the same time, telling you everything about Gnome Village and its sudden, unexpected downfall. It puts you on the edge of your seat, just like watching a feature film in the theatre.
Read our interview with Kamen and learn more about the story behind Bamboozle Tesseract.
Punk Head: I love how you take the listeners on a wild sonic dream through Bamboozle Tesseract. Can you tell us more about the album?
Tyler Kamen: It is certainly a wild sonic dream (or should I say dystopian nightmare)! I completed a trilogy back in 2021 called The Spectacular Machine Trilogy where I was able to truly explore the realm of progressive rock and challenge myself to push my musical boundaries. I was determined to start a new trilogy and with that, my album Artichoke Pythagorum was born in the Spring of 2022. Bamboozle Tesseract is the second chapter of what has come to be known as The Vegetable Gnome Trilogy. Set 200 years after the events of Artichoke Pythagorum, the gnome village has now become a gnome metropolis known as Gnome City. When scientists at Gnome City Labs invent the Bamboozle Tesseract to create super vegetables, something goes terribly wrong and turns the vegetables into mutants that begin to terrorize the city. With the help of Detective Sheriff, the gnomes try to restore the city back to its former glory but fail as it is completely overrun by vegetable mutants. I wanted to push myself even further with this new trilogy, basing a lot of the writing around drums, bass, piano, synth, and horn lines instead of starting with guitar as I have typically done in the past. I also wanted to move in the direction of arranged musical passages instead of too many guitar solos, although there are still plenty of those scattered throughout the album. What came to fruition is a polyrhythmic puzzle where all the instruments are tangled together, thus leaving the listener almost BAMBOOZLED!
PH: As a prolific musician with a catalog of releases, what keeps you motivated?
Kamen: After 15 albums I keep finding ways to challenge myself and I guess that is the driving component to my motivation. I want to get better and better at making these albums and my insatiable search for the perfect record is what truly keeps me going. Pushing the boundaries of progressive rock and creating the most complex, but still accessible, product is my goal. I think David Bowie stated it best, “Always go a little further into the water than you feel you're capable of being. Go a little bit out of your depth and when you don't feel your feet are quite touching the bottom, you're just about in the right place to do something exciting”. I believe that if you are reaching unknown territory with your music and it feels as if it is coming from a pure, ultimately inspired place you are doing something special. Each record has left me with this exact feeling, and it is that exciting energy that keeps me coming back for more.
PH: Can you talk about any standout tracks on the album and what makes them special to you?
Kamen: “Gnome City Labs” was the first song I made for the album. It is what set the tone for the rest of the record, so it is definitely the most important track for this project. The use of dissonance and building these songs around the drums, keys and bass were pivotal in the direction of the album. From there I was inspired to make tracks like “Splitting Atoms” and “Are You Mutant?” that followed the same kind of bombastic arrangement and soundscape. The second most important track was the title track “The Bamboozle Tesseract” which uses a few recurring themes that I bring back throughout the album on tracks like “Intermission”, “Lights Over Zezop Way” and “Conclusion – Bamboozle Reprise”. There are other motifs that pop up between tracks like “Vegetable Medley” and “Cruciferous Creepers”, but there are others as well if you listen close enough. I really wanted this record to lean into the use of recurring themes like “Lamb Lies Down on Broadway” by Genesis or “Tommy/Quadrophenia” by The Who so it would feel like a cohesive story. I think with the tracks mentioned above, I was able to reach my goal and create a mini-prog rock opera of sorts. For the final album of this trilogy, coming out in late 2023, I am pulling a bunch of inspiration from these songs so I would say they are definitely the standouts of inspiration.
PH: Was there a pivotal moment in your life when you decided to follow your path as a musician?
Kamen: My parents have owned and operated Kamen Entertainment Group, Inc. for a few decades and have been my main inspiration for pursuing music. My mother, Marina Kamen aka MARINA and my father, Roy Kamen, have published hundreds of original songs and produced commercials for many huge companies. I pretty much lived in their recording facilities since I was a young lad, so music has always been a part of my DNA. When I was 11 years old, a friend of mine had purchased a guitar magazine and brought it to school. We geeked out over all the craziest looking guitars and the rest was history. I decided that I wanted to start learning guitar and produce tracks like my parents, so after asking for a guitar, they gave me an acoustic from the studio and I began my musical journey.
PH: Who would you most like to collaborate with, if it could be anyone in the world?
Kamen: It would be difficult to pick just one musician to collaborate with as I pull from a variety of influences, but my top picks would be Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull, Trey Anastasio of Phish, David Byrne of Talking Heads, Peter Gabriel of Genesis, Ed Wynne of Ozric Tentacles and Frank Zappa.
