Tensei is the Chicago duo of Midas Wells and Simple X. The two have been working together off and on since the late ‘90s, and while they’ve had plenty of individual production credits over the years, it’s only in the past couple years that the two have reconnected and committed to working as a duo. Taking the name Tensei, which means “Heaven Star” in Japanese, they first garnered attention by winning a remix contest for Bilal, which led to Plug Research signing them. With their debut EP finally here, it’s clear that Tensei possess great chemistry and interesting musical ideas.

Working together to develop a production style that veers away from heavy sampling, Tensei combine a mix of acoustic and electronic instruments and various studio musicians to create a style of music that combines instrumental hip hop, dub, electronic, jazz, and R&B. While my initial reaction to listening to Tensei was that fall into the middle of the pack of instrumental hip hop artists, the good-but-not-great category, their music quickly grew on me. As soon as I reached the end of One I had to start over, quickly realizing that I didn’t appreciate everything enough the first time through. What became apparent is that Tensei have an excellent understanding of what makes a standout instrumental album - a good mix of deep grooves and slowly developing melodies, with musical choices that go back and forth between the familiar and the challenging. Whether it’s the mixture of laid back West Coast bass and drums being paired with melancholic violin courtesy of Savor Faire on “For The Love,” or the European-sounding synthesizers on “The Minotaur” mixing with sitar played by Tyler Randall that swirl together to create a dream-like atmosphere, they always manage to just keep you on your toes. The EP closes with the catchiest song on the collection, “Smash Mouth,” which has a great groove built off of a dub/reggae keyboard rhythm that’s played against a simple and bright guitar riff that compliments it perfectly. It may not match the winter weather outside my window, but I have a feeling I’m going to come back to this track in the summer.

If this is just the prelude to a full length album coming out later this year, we’re in for a treat. With this EP, Tensei has shown us that they have plenty of interesting and challenging musical ideas, but can also make instrumental tracks that are fun and catchy. I’m very excited to see how their sound progresses.