Jensen Sportag - Pure Wet EP

11 February, 2011
Written by Greg Salter

You’d be forgiven for considering Nashville, Tennessee as something of a musical dead end – when you think of Nashville, you think of country music and not much else. Elvis Craig and Austin Wilkinson, the duo behind Jensen Sportag, might not be about to change this, but their Pure Wet EP certainly goes some way towards suggesting that Nashville has a more varied music scene than many of us would suspect.

This four track EP is being released on the relatively new label Cascine, who’ve also recently brought out EPs by the likes of Chad Valley and Evan Voytas – Jensen Sportag share these artists’ vision of moulding pop into new but still familiar shapes. Somehow, the duo take the slightly dodgy elements of certain types of ‘70s and ‘80s music – liquid basslines or pretty, superficial synth melodies, for example – and find a way to make them appealing and interesting again.

For other, more recent touchstones, think the way Ariel Pink and Destroyer have taken ‘70s MOR and re-appropriated it on their recent, critically acclaimed records. Junior Boys are another obvious comparison, though Jensen Sportag lack their icy detachment. In many ways, you could also point to last year’s Autre Ne Veut record, which took overwrought ‘80s synth-pop ballads, and made them touching, personal and sincere. Even Kanye employed the slightly smarmy guitar solos that Jensen Sportag clearly love on tracks like ‘Devil in a New Dress’.

The title track that opens the EP utilises processed snippets of vocals, not unlike those of the so-called post-dubstep artists, but situates them in an altogether more synthetic and immediately appealing environment, as if disco balls have suddenly sprouted from the ceiling of a London warehouse. Meanwhile, on ‘Mapquest’, the vocals sound like they’re beamed through a time machine to meet the clattering high hats and processed basslines of a disco revival some time in the future.

The amount of elements drawn from the past can become overwhelming and, who knows, across a whole album could begin to grate – ‘Jareux’ toes a fine line between Stardust-like brilliance and toe-curling nostalgia. However, you get a sense, as on Hercules And Love Affair’s new album, that their influences and references are treated with a great deal of sincerity and care. And when they result in something as perfectly realised and irresistibly melodic as ‘Everything Good’, you do tend to stop worrying and just give in, at least for five and half minutes.

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Jensen Sportag, Pure Wet EP