//TENSE// – Escape EP

It’s often a little odd when you realize that a band actually exists. My relationship with //TENSE// has been abstract at best, popping up in small text on house-show experimental showcases and arriving as one of the highlights on last year’s underrated ISVOLT compilation with the dense, rancorous ‘Versus Man.’ On that particular song the Houston duo sounded utterly macabre, summing up the cold, techno-slave sound of the rest of the Witch Housers in a clattering, factorized thump. But due to the secluded, google-proof nature of the band (and that encoded name) it was easy to make the mistake that they were mined from a forgotten split-EP, especially given the many personas of the average industrial sound-maker.

But //TENSE// are a real band, and they’re going about their synthwave nostalgia in the triumphant matter of putting out a vinyl-only 12 inch (which coincidentally, is coming after an incredibly scarce limited-to-50 tape release) on the proudly outsider Mannequin records. It has the partnership honing their frigid minimalism in mostly predictable ways, but they do end up brushing on some affable ideas along the way.

It’s funny that this record is approaching the world around the same time Cold Cave’s Cherish the Light Years is. While the latter tries to blow the universe away with an ultra-manicured explosion of sound, //TENSE// are much more interested in the cavernous anti-sociality these mechanical beats have to offer. However they both draw from the same primary influences; avatar synth-gods The Cure, forgotten Goths like Blitz, and a penchant for stormy early-90s champions Nine Inch Nails. Of course //TENSE// exists without the production value of any of these bands, the electronics behind the music sound cheapened, battered, and almost excavated. The disembodied voice at the heart of the project is computerized through a dingy vocoder, as if the mind behind the music was just as robotic as the instruments.

There isn’t necessarily a standout within the five tracks, I usually come back to the percussive, head-knocking ‘Pulse Beat’ and the gently ominous ‘Unmanned Cars,’ but the carefully syncopated drum-loops, and guttural SNES-synths throughout are all odd enough to grab attention. It is important, however, to remember that this is just tribute at its heart. //TENSE// could easily be christened with the subject of James Murphy’s famous “kids with little jackets/ and borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered ‘80s.” That doesn’t necessarily make it a bad effort, but everything, especially the goofily over-fanaticized vocals, are a trip back in time. If //TENSE// manages to tie those elements into something a little more remarkable, the world might have much more of a reason to start paying attention to them. For now they’re just playing around in a dreamscape.