So You Say

TENSION : “So You Say” (Tension)

Just when you thought it was safe to quietly sell off your humble turntable at the nearest car-boot sale, thereby dealing the killer blow to the last line of defence put up by the ever-valiant vinyl, whose impending vanquishment now seems inevitable, along come Tension to prick, or rather kick, your conscience out of the heinous stratosphere where such blasphemous thoughts reside.

Stop me before I get carried away and launch into an all-studs-showing attack on the so-called record companies and shops whose respective manufacturing and stocking policies have shamelessly advocated the euthanasia of music’s oldest recording format for over a decade now. The point may be an obvious one but it’s no less true that the music that bands like Tension make is anathema to C.D., which serves only to strip the sound of the very edge and vitality which the advent of digital was supposed to enhance and while musos and executives basked in the initial heady rush of enthusiasm which accompanied the onslaught of the compact disc, some of us were not so ecstatic about feeling the breath of the twenty-first century down our necks.

Hence, it comes as a salutary riposte to the mainstream music industry that Tension have chosen to release this six-track E.P. on vinyl only – and it sounds all the better for it, proving that when it comes to a good ol’ rough and ready guitar thrash, there’s only one thing for it.

If you don’t know already, Tension are Dublin’s denizens of hard-core rock: a power trio who wear their hearts on their inside sleeves and whose rhythm section is as tight as their haircuts. The only problem is that they look and sound like a cross between Fugazi and . . . well, Fugazi – which means that the music follows a nigh identical pattern of syncopated rhythms, abrasive guitars and gnarled vocals to match.

The pitfall is that the impersonation is almost too good: leaving the band with an acute identity crisis to the point where they actually seem to believe they are Fugazi. Even the song titles are cloned: compare Tensions ‘Closedown’, ‘Burnt Out’, ‘Hate’ to Fugazi’s ‘Lockdown’, ‘Burning’, ‘Greed’, etc. The same use of the megaphone seems to blur any distinction that could have been made between the Dublin and Washington D.C., vocal styles and the overall effect is that you’re left admiring the success with which Tension have managed to ape their mentor’s every nuance, but still disappointed that they didn’t inject a few of their own.

I can’t help feeling that if Tension do move out of the shadow of their influences, they could well shine themselves.

• Nicholas G. Kelly