TC75 – Tension (CD Album – Razgrom Music)
Genre/Influences: EBM, minimal-EBM.
Background/Info: TC75 is the solo-project of Tino Claus (MRDTC, Amnistia). After a few EP’s released on 9XO Media TC75 joined hands together with the Russian Razgrom Music label to unleash this album featuring 10 tracks.
Content: Tino Claus remains faithful to the EBM influences he already deals with on Amnistia and MRDTC, but his solo-work is more minimal and personal-like. The song “Forge Ahead” perfectly illustrates the simple, but intelligent approach. Most of the cuts are ‘soft’, driven by slow rhythms and simple structures. A few harder cuts featuring some industrial sounds bring diversity to the tracklist. The last song is a long-duration, repetitive and atmospheric creation from more than 20 minutes.
+ + + : I’ve always like a minimal approach in EBM. Tino Claus has accomplished a few cool cuts, but I especially refer to “Forge Ahead”, which is an absolute masterpiece made with brilliant sound treatments. The global production reveals a retro-touch and haunting sound atmospheres sometimes reminding to Belgian electronic artists. The somewhat harder cuts bring extra variation and definitely belong to the most noticeable cuts of the work.
– – – : Some songs are maybe a little bit too simple, like suffering from a lack of elaboration. The last song, which also is the title track is too long in duration. I don’t have anything against long and elaborated ‘ambient’ pieces, but “Tension” is too repetitive.
Conclusion: I have a double feeling with this album; there are a few great ideas and songs at one side, but still a few less inspired cuts on the other side. I however think TC75 is an interesting project for its different approach so I’m really looking forward to see how this artist will evolve.
Best songs: “Forge Ahead”, “Ghost In The Machine”, “Death”, “Hall Of Shame”.
Rate: (7).
Artist: www.facebook.com/tc75.music
Label: www.razgrom.com / www.facebook.com/pages/Razgrom–Music/218060094876247
About TC75
TC75 is the solo project of Tino Claus, also known for Amnistia. “Tension”, reviewed above, followed a handful of EPs on 9XO Media before Claus signed with the Russian label Razgrom Music.
Claus returned to TC75 in 2026 with the album “4S (Selective Sound Sensitivity Syndrome)”, discussed in TC75 interview – Inside the Pressure of ‘4S (Selective Sound Sensitivity Syndrome)’, a conversation with Side-Line about pressure, precision and the space between TC75, collaborative work and Amnistia.
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