//TENSE// – Escape EP (2011) [Mannequin] // Grade: A-

Didn’t seem possible for //TENSE// to get more wasteland-ish, but here we are. This five-song stormer borrows a vibe from all the dystopian greats (most obv: Blade Runner, Escape from New York) while somehow stripping everything to its barest bones. We’re talking dangerously sexy, minimal EBM: a slinky bass line, some metal-clang drums and perfectly timed (read: terrifying and sometimes totally unexpected) vocal effects running at you like an enemy with a scrapyard knife.

The name says it all. If last year’s Consume was an all-encompassing monster, this EP that could’ve eaten you alive had it teeth, Escape is…you know, the escape from that. It’s a lateral move—//TENSE// still sound like themselves, i.e. pretty much the only new band able to announce a tour with Nitzer Ebb and have people go “Well, obviously.”—but it deepens their narrative ten-fold. Over their relatively short span of releases, the Houston duo (sometimes trio) have proven themselves masters of atmospheric storytelling, and this one’s no exception. ‘Cause even though Escape evokes a time first and foremost, its place is equally striking. Wax Trax-era Chicago gone awry: a retro-futuristic, kill-or-be-killed void.

And the songwriting’s deepened too, thanks partially to all that minimalism. From the sinister dance of “Body Conscious” to the pulsing repetition of “Pull The Strings”, Escape focuses solely on what works. Even the most vast and cinematic of the bunch, closer “Unmanned Cars” with its crushing death-march build, feels stripped to the most essential elements: a doomed and plodding beat, vocals screaming into an echo. Sounds and rhythms that convey the depraved atmosphere with nothing weighing them down. Welcome to the deserted //TENSE// wasteland. Grab a jagged blade; it’s hell out here.

- Rue Sauvage