The seven-and-a-half minute track “Like Waves We Will Keep Coming On,” by Wires Under Tension (a Bronx-based duo founded by composer Christopher Tignor), has the post-rock grandeur that its diction suggests. The piece starts with the sound of a turntable needle and a slow, feverish monologue. Then strings begin to lay down the primer coat, but Tignor applies only a thin layer so that the impurities show through for textural effect. After nearly two minutes, synth sequences and drums are unexpectedly speckled into the mix. A sense of acumen that’s agnostic to convention rises from the disparate pairing of programmed and organic sounds. The track is from the upcoming sophomore release Replicant, an album inspired by Conlon Nancarrow’s player piano experiments and Philip K. Dick’s fiction. Like Nancarrow, the duo explores the relationship of the mechanical with performance. And like Dick, they work within genre and lather on the metaphysical themes. Listen here:
Wires Under Tension’s Replicant, whose artwork for both the CD and LP was created by Peter Liversidge, is to be released by Western Vinyl on November 13.
• Wires Under Tension: http://www.wiresundertension.com
• Western Vinyl: http://westernvinyl.com
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