Biography
Having first crossed paths during art school in 2003, Dan Workman and Dean Tzenos discovered an immediate musical bond worth pursuing. Tzenos handled guitar duties while Workman supplied vocals that could shift without warning from an ethereal purity to a sudden shriek; after cycling through several drummers the pair struck out on their own, securing a Toronto townhouse where they could focus on cutting an album as Ten Kens. Twelve months later a demo surfaced that drew immediate interest from FatCat Records, who signed the project amid competing label offers. With Lee Stringle added on bass and Ryan Roantree installed as the permanent drummer, the quartet prepared to shape those early tracks into a self-titled debut.
The album was tracked in Montreal under the guidance of producer Colin Stewart (Black Mountain, Pretty Girls Make Graves) during June 2007 and appeared in September 2008. Sonically it channeled the raw force of Nirvana and At the Drive-In while maintaining a brooding pace and stance comparable to Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and the Black Angels. Roantree’s jazz-drumming background kept the arrangements from settling into repetition, and Tzenos’ guitar lines alternated between crystalline shimmer and gritty crunch. Workman’s vocals, saturated in distortion, animated the expansive spaces, most notably on “Refined,” whose measured opening section gradually erupts into a ferocious conclusion.
After opening for A Place to Bury Strangers and Sian Alice Group on tours through the United States and Europe, the band encountered upheaval when Dean Tzenos departed. Dan Workman refused to abandon the project and recruited Brett Paulin on guitar; John Sullivan then replaced Lee Stringle on bass. The resulting record, For Posterity, emerged as a tighter, more aggressive statement than its predecessor, revealing an instinctive rapport between Workman and Paulin. Echoing the group’s earliest sessions, the musicians sequestered themselves—with Workman later noting they sought “no outsiders, no distractions, no sunlight”—to produce a darker, more emotionally resonant album. On “Back to Benign,” guitars erupt over a prowling bass line beneath Workman’s anguished delivery, which occupies greater prominence than before. “Screaming Viking,” by contrast, deploys Black Sabbath- and Led Zeppelin-style riffs and momentum to unsettle as much as it exhilarates.
For 2012’s Namesake, Brett Paulin and Dan Workman further consolidated their partnership, engineering and producing an album that ventured deeper into shadowy, psychedelic territory than earlier Ten Kens material. The sessions spanned an intense twelve-month stretch across multiple studios and techniques, all conducted in complete isolation until the band felt satisfied. The finished work opens with “Death in the Family,” a seven-and-a-half-minute excursion that begins with a Pink Floyd-reminiscent bass figure before layers of vocals and guitar accumulate into a hypnotic, ferocious peak that eventually collapses under its own density. Elsewhere, the measured melody of “The Field Around Your Van” is offset by the towering riffs of “German Purity,” around which Workman’s vocals intertwine with precision.
The album was tracked in Montreal under the guidance of producer Colin Stewart (Black Mountain, Pretty Girls Make Graves) during June 2007 and appeared in September 2008. Sonically it channeled the raw force of Nirvana and At the Drive-In while maintaining a brooding pace and stance comparable to Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and the Black Angels. Roantree’s jazz-drumming background kept the arrangements from settling into repetition, and Tzenos’ guitar lines alternated between crystalline shimmer and gritty crunch. Workman’s vocals, saturated in distortion, animated the expansive spaces, most notably on “Refined,” whose measured opening section gradually erupts into a ferocious conclusion.
After opening for A Place to Bury Strangers and Sian Alice Group on tours through the United States and Europe, the band encountered upheaval when Dean Tzenos departed. Dan Workman refused to abandon the project and recruited Brett Paulin on guitar; John Sullivan then replaced Lee Stringle on bass. The resulting record, For Posterity, emerged as a tighter, more aggressive statement than its predecessor, revealing an instinctive rapport between Workman and Paulin. Echoing the group’s earliest sessions, the musicians sequestered themselves—with Workman later noting they sought “no outsiders, no distractions, no sunlight”—to produce a darker, more emotionally resonant album. On “Back to Benign,” guitars erupt over a prowling bass line beneath Workman’s anguished delivery, which occupies greater prominence than before. “Screaming Viking,” by contrast, deploys Black Sabbath- and Led Zeppelin-style riffs and momentum to unsettle as much as it exhilarates.
For 2012’s Namesake, Brett Paulin and Dan Workman further consolidated their partnership, engineering and producing an album that ventured deeper into shadowy, psychedelic territory than earlier Ten Kens material. The sessions spanned an intense twelve-month stretch across multiple studios and techniques, all conducted in complete isolation until the band felt satisfied. The finished work opens with “Death in the Family,” a seven-and-a-half-minute excursion that begins with a Pink Floyd-reminiscent bass figure before layers of vocals and guitar accumulate into a hypnotic, ferocious peak that eventually collapses under its own density. Elsewhere, the measured melody of “The Field Around Your Van” is offset by the towering riffs of “German Purity,” around which Workman’s vocals intertwine with precision.
Albums
Singles
