Introspective, thought provoking lyrics are all well and good, especially when set against musical backdrops that reflect the seriousness of those lyrics, but there are also times when all you want to hear is some chunky power chords and funky rhythms framing lyrics that look at the world not so much from under a microscope but more from the bottom of a beer glass. Enter 10 Slip a Canadian power trio from Sydney, Nova Scotia with their new release "Tense Lip". an album that in the bands words is "best enjoyed after 4-5 cold drinks" and "with a 6th in hand".
"
Tense Lip" opens with "
Dead Ain't Gonna Cry" and like most of the songs gracing this album this is a song rooted heavily in the
blues, albeit a heavily fuzzed distorted take on that genre. As you might expect after reading the words fuzzed and distorted the refrains here are delivered thick loud and chunky, which is something sorely needed when your drummer is hitting his skins and cymbals with the force of an industrial piledriver. Vocals on this song tell of "
breaking down on the old highway" with "
only help coming from a copperhead snake" and are delivered in clean slightly drawled lead tones in the verses but utilize shared harmonies in the songs earworm of a chorus, there is also some pretty snazzy lead guitar work to admire here also. "
Cult" follows next " the songs
bluesy desert rock groove supporting a deliciously addictive seesawing vocal melody that contains what might be
Desert Psychlist's favourite lyric of the whole album, "
grass ain't greener from across the divide, not if perspective is reflective on the other side", who says these guys don't do deep and meaningful? The band dial things down for the song "
10 Slip" but only initially, the song soon moving from a languid and hazy
blues, boasting an equally languid and hazy vocal, into something akin to a
stoner punk romp in its latter half, the song only reverting back to its hazy
blues roots in its dying moments. There is an off-kilter and quirky feel to next number "
The Wall", its jagged shifts in time, dynamics and tempo are almost
prog-like in places while "
Shallow Waters" mirrors the
proggish feel of its predecessor but on its path to it final note also visits territories that carry signposts like
doomic,
alternative and
grungy at their borders, it also ramps up the vocal dynamics, mixing low key crooning with pulpit sermonizing and occasional
folk-like harmonising to give the proceedings an almost religious feel. "
Mirrors" is next and here we find
10 Slip adding to their sound touches of
hardcore furiosity and
sludge like ferality it is followed by "
Hallowed Ground" an intriguing mix of
psych tinted
doominosity and
stonerized
bluesiness that includes, among its many delights,
surf-like guitar textures played over a delicious solid and tight drum and bass groove. Final number, "
Spore", begins with a manic drum solo that is then joined by the rest of the band in a groove tighter than a hug from an
anaconda, this is a song with crowd pleaser written large all over it, furious rhythms, eastern tinted guitar motifs low grizzled bass lines all topped off with a strongly executed swaying vocal, you can imagine this being played at the end of a live set and just blowing the roof off the venue.
"Tense Lip" is an incredible album, an album that is direct and in your face in places, angular and quirky in others, every track is an adventure with every guitar note, bass line and drum beat having the potential to lead you down a new and unexpected musical path. 10 Slip might paint themselves as bar room philosophers who like to have a few beers and play rock'n'roll but "Tense Lip" proves just how much more than that they really are..
Check 'em out ....
© 2025 Frazer Jones
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