Marco Niemerski's 2006 debut single was called "Around the House" and the title sums up the German producer's career as Tensnake. He's occasionally experimented with sounds from other genres—electro's searing synth lines, beachy balearic tempos, expansive space disco—but he's always returned to house's straightforward pulse, both with his original productions and as a DJ. Reliability has been Niemerski's calling card but his best material comes when he steps out of his comfort zone. He had a minor blog-crossover hit with 2010's Soul II Soul-jacking remix of defunct Toronto house ragamuffins Azari & III's "Reckless With Your Love". That year also brought "Coma Cat", a classic slice of 1980s-redolent house music on blissed-out dance hub Permanent Vacation that paired textural intensity with a melody that was a serious earworm.
It's been nearly four years since "Coma Cat" and Niemerski has remained reliable, so Glow seeks to both capitalize on that rep and introduce him to a larger audience—it's not only is it his debut album, it's also his first time on a major. Successful dance full-lengths generally take one of two approaches: a statement of purpose separate from the creator’s established style or a collection of existing singles, rounded up as a primer for newcomers. Glow goes in a different direction, offering a streamlined, sanitized version of the Tensnake sound. It's house music in miniature form, heavily brushed with disco's steady-handed bounce and tempered with just enough potential pop-crossover appeal. Niemerski generally works best with room to stretch, as his best productions typically land around the seven-minute mark. A brief glance at the running time of Glow's individual songs—only one pushes the six-minute mark, while most clock in at three-and-a-half—suggests that he compromised his vision to accommodate a larger stage.
Much of the album finds Niemerski collaborating with Berlin vocalist Fiora, a capable singer whose unshowy qualities makes her both malleable and forgettable; save for "See Right Through", a moody cut that's made the rounds over the past year, Fiora's presence feels more like a placeholder, a paperweight meant to anchor the barely-sketched house figures. Niemerski's collaborations with other artists fare worse; the stale "Pressure", a disco workout featuring vocalist Thabo, never capitalizes on its propulsive build, while "Feel of Love", a team-up with Jamie Lidell and space cadet Stuart Price in his Jacques Lu Cont alias, is a jagged, off-putting synth-pop tune that resembles the many low points of Lidell's self-titled LP from last year.
Many of Glow's songs are just-there, but a few manage to be engaging: "No Relief", "See Right Through", and "No Colour" are perfect examples of Niemerski's still-considerable talent with house form. The latter two tunes made memorable appearances on his Essential Mix, confirming that he's most in his zone when dreaming of the dancefloor. The appropriately slow "58 BPM" is a lush, swarming synth-pop tune that serves as the album's strongest vocal cut, while album bookends "First Song" and "Last Song" play around with pop-focused drone while embracing the type of epic beams found in M83's music (or, Random Access Memories' own jet-engine closer, "Horizon").
Both "First Song" and "Last Song" suggest that Niemerski may have had a more focused album experience in mind, but it never had a chance given the record's scattershot approach. Given its release on a high-profile label, as well as recent shifts in mainstream dance culture, it's possible to look at Glow more cynically. Michaelangelo Matos recently described Niemerski's Astralwerks signing as the latest example of the EDM cash-grab still raging on in North America. But the album is so slight, it’ll be easy to forget it exists and hope that Tensnake's next full-length won't sound so uninspired.
