Every music scribe loves a band with a good back story, and
Wires Under Tension
admittedly has an excellent one. Bandleader
Christopher Tignor
is a techie (he's getting a Computer Science PhD and is a software designer for Google) with a background in serious avant-garde music (he's studied with and/or worked for composers
LaMonte Young
and
Paul Lansky
), but he combined his interests in music and technology for his
Slow Six
project. After
was booted from its Brooklyn-based headquarters,
Tignor
and drummer
Theo Metz
decamped to the South Bronx, where they began making music as
. Developing a new sound beyond the sway of Brooklyn's cool cachet, they put together their debut album,
Light Science
. With
on violin, keys, and electronics, and
Metz
holding up the percussive end of things, the pair has created what might be described as post-rock for a new era. It's the kind of sound that wouldn't seem out of place alongside the instrumentally oriented work of
Sufjan Stevens
, though the blend of propulsive rhythms and electronic tweaking places
in close proximity to
the Battles
camp as well. The feel here is that of a rock band -- at least in the loosest definition of the term -- especially when
digs into his kit and
WUT
gets going on a groove. But
's musical apprenticeship in the avant-garde world shows through as well, and between the minimalist motifs, flowing violin lines, and brass interjections,
sometimes suggests the likes of
Steve Reich
,
, and
Pauline Oliveros
letting their hair down for a garage-band jam. ~ J. Allen