Composed of Ben Edwards and Douglas Benford, who respectively
record under the Benge
and Si-Cut.db guises,
the pair got together at the tail end of the nineties
to form Tennis. The collaboration resulted in a first
album, Wooden Sweet, on German label Electrochemical
Research in 2000. Their second offering, Europe
On Horseback, released a year later on then newly
formed Bip-Hop Records, saw the duo moving to more arid
territories as they blended their individual sound more
closely, convincingly experimenting with glitches and
digital abrasions.
After returning to their solo projects for a while,
the pair got back in the studio and now present their
third album, Furlines. In essence close to
last year’s Si-Cut.db
album Enthusiast
in the way the sonic landscape is carefully carved and
assembled, this album also bares the melodic imprint
of Benge’s recent
Meme Tunes,
as the duo develop basic musical structures into subtle
progressive constructions. Contrasting with the fractured
soundscapes of Europe On Horseback, Furlines
offers a series of elegant downbeat moments. The compositions
remain however firmly abstract, demonstrating the intense
exchange of ideas between the two men and highlighting
their common ground. The first four tracks show a progression
from the minimal soundscapes encountered on Tennis’s
previous album to the more luxurious, and perhaps more
ambitious, second half, with the dub-infused Otter
Story stealing the show. Inspired by nature, and
described as a walk in the wood with Edwards and Benford
as your guides, Furlines is before all a brilliant
emulation of these two artists’ talents.
The album, the twentieth release in just two years from
French label Bip-Hop comes with an additional CD containing
remixes of tracks taken from Europe On Horseback.
With contributions from a variety of artists, from relative
new comers Cray, Taylor Deupree and Chris
Dooks to established artists, including Kim Cascone
and Scanner man Robin
Rimbaud, the Horseback mixes offer a different
view on Tennis’s previous album and their music.
If some artists choose to remain close to the pair’s
original playground, warping the minimal soundcapes
and adapting them to their own scope, others introduce
a more perverse vision of Edwards’ and Benford’s
work, elevating it into strange new grounds. Kim Cascone’s
reinterpretation of Safelle takes the listener
on a journey through electronic distortions and glitches.
As he strips the track from its melodic elements, Cascone
reveal some surprisingly intense sonic formations. Totally
hijacking Weakness Together, Scanner’s
Robin Rimbaud applies his unmistakable sound with force,
transforming the original into a fascinating five-minute
piece of electronic. The unlikely dance floor bonanza
of Frank Bretschneider’s remix of Safelle
and ElectroniCat’s version of Contube Alomany
turn the originals into dense organic moments, while
Chris Dooks, here under
his Bovine Life alias, dresses up Self-Seal Mishap
with ethereal vocals and warm ambient waves.
While Furlines introduces a softer, darker
side of the Tennis sound, demonstrating the increasing
chemistry between Ben Edwards and Douglas Benford and
emphasise the similarity of the two musicians’
soundscapes, the Horseback mixes provide a
very interesting insight into the pair’s sound
and highlights its relevance to the current music scene.
3.9/5 |
