Live from the Boom Room is a new video series featuring live performances recorded in the Blip Blap Video HQ bunker in St. Louis, Mo. Learn more about Blip Blap Video at blipblapvideo.com, or follow them on Instagram and YouTube.
About this week’s artist:
Tense Era is an independent electronic artist who combines glitch hop with psych rock, Neo soul with micro house, and lo fi grooves with mid to hi fi indie rock. Influenced by and recalling the vibes of Khruangbin, the guitar play of Unknown Mortal Orchestra and King Gizzard in addition to the down tempo beats of Shlomo, the danceable sampled drums of Four Tet, or the dirty but intricate bass lines of Flying Lotus.
“The March” is the lead single off of the forthcoming instrumental Focus EP, and is a constantly building track that starts with a sample of an N95 mask string being plucked, pitch shifted and turned into deep ethereal drums that meet a vocal wail. As it builds from this unrecognizable sound made from a piece of cloth and rubber bands that millions of people were using over the pandemic, it evokes a mood reminiscent of the many marches and protests that millions engaged in. It’s meant to be the soundtrack to a crowd of people who have been brought together by a socially conscious inability to continue to accept systemic racism, to accept the continued exploitation of their own bodies under capitalism; an inability to continue to accept inaction amongst the growing climate crisis, a march that recognizes that all these things are connected. The lone lyric, “I don’t want to wait,” is looped and harmonized with as the song reaches a point of calm before quickly descending into chaos, finding its footing in the end before a chorus of horn-like synths and e-bowed guitars reiterates the demands of the crowd in the face of an uncaring upper class. Then the march quiets down to its last members, its vocal samples, shaker, drums and bass making its way back home to rest.
Links:
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