tense forms reviews

the autumn-waking
the loudest birthday ever
Tense Forms
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Once the challenging origami-like packaging of the autumn-waking’s the loudest birthday ever has been conquered, what remains is five songs that tackle some combination of art punk and shoegaze, with varied success. The EP fires off with a driving song reminiscent of Sky Cries Mary, complete with haunting female vocals and trance-inducing repetitive lyrics. From there, however, the energy is lost. The songs become more and more instrumental, and the female vocals disappear almost completely and are replaced by unconvincing male voices and sampled spoken pieces. By far, this group’s music works best when powerful siren-like vocals transcend the grinding melodies. If the singing on the first two tracks is performed by guest S. Renée Bertsch, then permanent autumn-waking members Allison Stanley and Joshua Dumas should consider bringing her into the group full-time. - Catherine P. Lewis