Genre: Electronic/Rock   Sounds like: part Of Montreal, a bit of Franz Ferdinand maybe, and a whole lot of originality

I enter Moving Units’ new EP, Tension War, with a somewhat tabula rasa mindset.  I know nothing of Moving Units outside of seeing them on the Coachella 2011 line-up (they play Friday, April 15th. Add that business to your Coachooser.) and knowing that a single track of theirs, “Pink Redemption” has found its way onto my workout playlist and has pushed me through many part-jog-part-dance-party miles. As I do some research, I find this band—which sounds surprisingly young and new in the best possible way—is ten years into their career. Ten? Seriously? How have I not heard of them? I’ve obviously lived a sadly sheltered life.

Here we have a unit (see what I did there?) that’s modern and sounds as if it’s been subject to more recent influences (maybe newer Of Montreal?).  However, this Los Angeles band has been pioneering this punk-pop-dance amalgam for an entire decade.  Shame on me for not knowing about this sooner.

As for my recommended tracks?  Besides the futuristic “Pink Redemption” (The intro to the song actually initially reminds me of the opening of The Killers’ “Human” a little.  It diverges from that pretty quickly, though. Download this track here.), the opening track “Liquid X” definitely stood out thanks to clever lines like “we’re not pretentious/we’re relentless till the end”. Also, a detail I certainly appreciated was the use of sharp instrumental sounds over fuzzy but still intelligible vocals, instead of the usual fuzzy guitar and keys with more crystalized vocals, which I feel like a lot of bands are doing these days. It was nice to let the music speak louder than the lyric, although, as I mentioned before, the lyric was still alive and well.

Basically, if you’re looking for some dance music on the heavier side that you can move to but still feel like a bad-ass rocker, this is the EP for you.

Now excuse me while I go purchase the five other Moving Units’ albums that I’ve so callously neglected my entire, deprived life.

What did you readers think of Moving Units’ Tension War EP?  Agree with my review?  In total and complete opposition?  Let me know! I live for feedback.  Seriously. It makes my day.