Twine
have constantly refined their sound since the release
of their first album, Reference, four years
ago, redefining the boundaries within which their music
evolves and uncovering new grounds with each album.
Greg Malcolm and Chad Mossholder met at high school
in the late eighties, and after learning the ropes in
a variety of rock bands during the nineties, eventually
formed Twine. Now based far apart from each other, Malcolm
in Baltimore, Maryland, and Mossholder in Boulder, Colorado,
the pair have learnt to adapt and allowed Twine to evolve
in a totally unique way, each member performing live
independently as well as together under the Twine banner.
Their last two records, Circulation,
released on Swedish label Komplott, and Recorder,
released on Bip-Hop, showed a progressive move toward
extreme sonic abstraction, yet using traditional instruments
to expand their glitch-ridden soundscapes.
With this fifth album released in as many years, Twine
transcend more than ever the electronic nature of their
music, basing the almost entirety of these nine tracks
(ten on the LP) on guitars and pianos, creating elegant
moody structures on which vocals components get trapped,
looped and deconstructed to become simple components
of the compositions. The electronic backbone is kept
working in the background, bringing discreet textures
to each track while at times, seismic percussions smash
the ethereal ambience to introduce a mechanical element.
A stark contrast from the austere abstraction of their
previous album, Twine appears incredibly organic
and pure, evoking the sonic affluence of My Bloody Valentine,
the contrasted terrains of Seefeel and the dark meanderings
of Aphex
Twin’s Selected Ambient Works Vol. 2,
with haunting touches of Dead Can Dance layered over
luscious soundscapes. Scattered all throughout this
album, the voices of Shelly Gracon and Alison Scola,
in turn drones, mesmerising songs or lacerated conversations,
develop as integrant part of the music, becoming simple
sound sources. After a short intro in the shape of G_R_V,
built around excerpts of conversations, Plectrum
sets the tone, with a strummed guitar guiding intriguing
vocals through the murky ambience created by Malcolm
and Mossholder. The appropriately entitled Piano
is reminiscent of the collaboration between the Cocteau
Twins and Harold Budd on The Moon & The
Melodies. Yet, here, the naked piano melody is
draped in swathes of distortions, emphasising on the
atmospheric nature of the composition as the track evolves
almost imperceptibly. Whereas on Pendant and
the LP-only Sbrent, Twine offer a collection
of slightly more conventional ambient soundscapes, they
build, with the epic Kalea Morning, a particularly
haunting piece of music, mixing oriental and occidental
singing over layers of processed guitars and syncopated
beats, adding discreet glitches all the way through.
As the composition slowly develops, it reveals more
and more beautiful luminescent sonic touches swirling
around an ethereal melodic cloud. The spooky Asa
Nisi Masa is by far the most intriguing moment
on offer here, as the pair assemble processed reversed
vocals over a hypnotic.
If the use of processed vocals, guitars and pianos is
not entirely new, the sonic landscapes exposed on this
album are incredibly dense and denote the unusual approach
to sonic structures adopted by Twine over the last few
years. By far one of the most fascinating record released
this year, Twine transcends genres like no
one else.
4.9/5 |
