Ten Kens - Ten Kens

’ self titled debut is a dense record, there’s no doubt about that. It’s dark, it’s swirling and yet it’s pretty heavy in places. Everything creates an almost impenetrable wall of sound that marks this release as worth checking out, despite their name making us think of a certain Coronation Street character being cloned (speak for yourself! - Ed).

Opener ‘Bearfight’ is representative of the heavy tracks, it’s all distortion and buried vocals with a hammering rhythm section and deep atmospherics, yet this is followed by ‘Downcome Home’, which if anything has a country twinge. This in turn is followed by ‘Refined’, which opens with an Arcade Fire-in-Egypt organ. Lost yet? Despite these eclecticisms this is a remarkably cohesive record and is one that takes time to truly get under the skin.

Midway through the album we get ‘The Alternate Biker’ which combines rock n roll, spoken word and a Franz Ferdinand style dance stomp it would all be rather disconcerting if we weren’t used to Ten Kens throwing everything at us by now. Even then it’s not something we really expect and its constant changes of pace showcase the bands amicable skills and prove to be an album highlight.

It seems for every moment of post-rock noise there’s a moment of West-Coast American pop (a la The Shins). However the conventional route is not taken with this either and the vocal hooks are low in the mix allowing the guitar and bass lines to lead the songs. This is most evident on ‘Prodigal Sun’ but crops up throughout the record, the production lending cohesion across the album.

Overall, whilst this isn’t a record for everyone – most of the songs lack in anything resembling a traditional chorus – there’s enough talent on show and a willingness to experiment that mark Ten Kens out as a band that are very much worth a listen. Doubtlessly there’s many a place they could go from this debut, which is what we’ll be watching for. The main criticisms would be that often there’s an air of detachment about them – possibly caused by the lack of audible vocals and that towards the end the record does dip noticeably. Nonetheless if follow up records can demonstrate as much heart as this one has done brains then we’ll have a force to be reckoned with in Ten Kens.

Ten Kens recently provided our North American cousins with a personalised guide to their home city of Toronto. You can read it here