Labels: Tension Head
Review by: Alex Hannan
plink plonk plink plonk plink plonk
plink plonk plink plonk plink plonk
BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM
BRIIIING MEEEEE TEEEEETH
goes the start of TENDRIL’s five-song tape “Smear”, and opening song “The plight of Pitsworth” sets out their concerns in a concise 1 minute 11: abstractly structured songs, more likely to wander linearly around than hit you with a verse/chorus: dirty, smeary slide-heavy guitar work: yelling-into-a-tornado vocals.
TENDRIL’s frontman is a tiny bit understated compared to the giants of the field – think David Yow, Nick Sakes – and the songs take a little while to settle in rather than commandeering your attention with ferocious ravings or unhinged charisma. Still, digging in, there’s plenty of interesting work going on, like the twitchy guitar stabs that close out “Singe on the fringe”, and the lyrics have an interesting body horror haiku meets black metal expansiveness to them. You know, chasms and clots and veins and such. It works. Definitely more on the claustrophobic psychodrama tip than the drugs’n’drag racing noise rock one.
The tape and download are sequenced differently: the online version is runs broadly short to long, ending with the 3 minute plus ‘The klutz” and “A river in my spine.” The tape has one of the longer songs closing each side. Think I prefer them separated, because compared to the rest they seem less distinctive, more what you’d expect – both channel a slower, tamer DAZZLING KILLMEN, repeat material in the first half of the song (that verse/chorus thing starting to make an appearance) before a settling into a repetitive groove for the second half and dragging a little. Also, “lurk the murk” (from “A river in my spine”) doesn’t really grab me as a chorus.
I may be in the minority, but I’d like to see more risks with the songwriting on the longer tunes. If you’re going to call yourself a “sound project” rather than a band you might as well get adventurous… Like the shorter numbers a lot, though, and hope the minds at work here stay creative.