Todd Rouse has had a career most musicians would trade anything for. As the frontman of East of Gideon, he shared stages with Nirvana, Rage Against the Machine, and Lenny Kravitz, worked with producers Butch Vig and Greg Ladanyi, and signed a six-album deal with JRS Records. Then life happened. After stepping away from music to care for his wife, who passed away from cancer, Rouse eventually found his way back to songwriting – this time under the name Tellus Mater. The result is a five-song self-titled EP that came out on January 14th, recorded in Birmingham, UK, with producer Matt Cotterill.
Overall, this EP is remarkably musical, and the music succeeds in being both larger-than-life and intimate at the same time. It sounds big because it creates space for introspection in a way that feels organic with the way the songs are arranged and structured. All 5 songs feel equally masterfully composed with great pacing and progression over their respective runtimes.
That being said, I will highlight 3 of the songs to showcase exactly why this EP is so great. We’ll start the same way the EP starts with “ALONE WITH YOU”; this song is a perfect example of why Tellus Mater is a great songwriter. It feels timeless and like it is a complete work of art with all of its elements coming together just to tell a story. The lyrics, the guitar lines, and the drums controlling the dynamics tastefully. It’s a masterclass on its own.
The next song I want to highlight is track 4, “SEEMS TO ME” because it showcases Tellus Mater’s brilliant use of harmony. There is some beautiful modal interchange going on in this song to use a nerdy musical term. What this translates to the ears of the average listener is that there is essentially a vibe shift in the music that constantly rotates back around to create this beautifully bright sound.
The final song I’ll highlight is “OUR LAST FIGHT”. This one shows how Tellus Mater is willing to engage in some sonic experiments. The song starts innocently enough, like a traditional ballad with some keys being played as the lyrics are somberly sung over them. But then, when the rhythm section starts to get introduced slowly, the song shifts very gradually into trip-hop territory, and then it graduates to a huge wall of sound that’s essentially the statement piece of the song.
Flying from South Florida to Birmingham to record this EP with Cotterill was clearly a decision that paid off. The production has a weight and clarity to it that matches what Todd Rouse is writing about: loss, reflection, the emotional math of living through something hard and still choosing to look forward. For a comeback record after years away, the Tellus Mater EP doesn’t sound like someone getting reacquainted with himself. It sounds like someone who had been saving it all up and finally found the right room to let it out.
