The Houston duo of //TENSE// are focusing on a sound that seems to have gotten much less attention during the second coming of minimal synth; that is EBM, New Beat and Industrial. Their sound is a bit cleaner than some of their predecessors, but not by much. All the tooth and nail grit of Absolute Body Control, A Split Second and Front 242 is in here.
[Order via email] The second age of cold wave, synth wave, minimal wave, electro wave or whatever other name you want to try and stitch onto it, is in full swing. Some may say that this renewed interest in the downtrodden lament of the synthesizer and poet operator is not a recent phenomenon, and they’d be right. But, there has never been such a spread of labels and artists putting out this retrospective sound. Obscure nuggets are being gleaned from across the globe, from behind the Iron Curtain to the warm climate of Oceania groups and albums are coming to the fore (once more.) But, alongside this refresh of the past comes the future of this sound. Mannequin is one of the few synthwave labels that is achieving the difficult balancing act of contemporary and retrograde releases. Whilst digging deep to uncover hidden secrets, like The Metronomes and Chromagin, the Italian imprint has kept its ear to the ground for new and exciting acts such as Led Er Est, Frank (just Frank) and Newclear Waves to name but a few. One such modern group rising to the top are American duo //TENSE//.
Following a North American tour opening for Nitzer Ebb, //TENSE// return to terra vinyl with Escape. As soon as the needle drops on this EP you are transported back to the days of heavy eye make up, angular haircuts and deep sighs. Right, this isn’t a million miles from today I guess, but //TENSE// sound amazingly authentic. Their style, EBM with a lean to New Beat, is as much a continuation of that sound as it is an emulation. The power of “Disconnect Myself” hits home immediately, dislocated vocals forced forward by a relentless industrial beat. It is the synthline that comes to the fore in “Body Conscious.” The subdued vocals and almost elated chords echo early Human League musings. The track titles surmise much of the 80s synth scene, such as “Pulse Beat” and its bleepy covert melody. Factory industrialism casts an oily shadow over “Pull the Strings”, with juddering vocals giving the piece a Neon Judgement aspect. To end this submersion in //TENSE// is “Unmanned Cars.” Slowly the piece builds, in a style similar to a John Carpenter sound track. The track bleeds this movie score element into a dark and lonesome finale; inter-spliced with dejected lyrics for a cold and desolate end to this EP.
The Houston duo of //TENSE// are focusing on a sound that seems to have gotten much less attention during the second coming of minimal synth; that is EBM, New Beat and Industrial. Their sound is a bit cleaner than some of their predecessors, but not by much. All the tooth and nail grit of Absolute Body Control, A Split Second and Front 242 is in here. As some groups are continuing the synth wave experiment, //TENSE// are adding to the EBM and New Beat counterpart. Word in the pipeline is a European tour in the Autumn, so watch the net and get your ears around this EP.
Escape is out now on Mannequin. [Order via email]
//TENSE// – Escape 12” EP MIX by Mannequin Label
