Press Play : Prism Tats

There is a new artist on the scene that has the musical world feeling freaked out and creeped out.   Garret van der Spek more famously known as Prism Tats released his self-titled album on April 15, 2016.  He has written an unapologetic record that utilizes guitars, drum machines, and bass synths to create a post-punk and synth pop experience.

Prism Tats hails from Durban, South Africa where rock music was not easily heard or found. Music became the artist’s escape into another dimension. A dimension where he enjoyed the company of legendary artists like Hendrix, Kinks, Sabbath, and the Beatles. Although he let the creativity and sound of these majors influence and inspire him, he also managed to stay grounded in his South African roots.  Needless to say, the watering of these legends mixed with the fertile South African sound bloomed a unique one-man band who is shocking the music world.

Prism Tats opens his album with the track “Pacifist Masochist” where he shows off his striking vocal talents and energetic enthusiasm.  He then introduces another side of himself in the song “Creep Out// Freak Out”, which displays a more manic and increasingly confident artist. This is notable song because it sets the stage for the rest of the album.   “Creep Out// Freak Out” on the surface seems chaotic. However, as listeners journey through the rest of the album they will find that this song is a very precise and calculated trajectory with a target of giving listeners the permission to be themselves in world that bombards people with ideas of who they should be.

Prism Tats entire album is a public acceptance of who he is and  of his place in the world. It is a documentation of the evolution the artist has undergone as a person and a musician. Prism Tats album is close to a docu-series that details the experience of moving to a new place that is both familiar and foreign at the same time.  It takes the listener through the relative and schizophrenic experience of discovering the self while walking the fine line of two separate realities, and it does all of this in post punk and synth pop fashion.