*Twine : Violets*
Is out today. You can purchase the MP3 version with bonus track
Or the CD here:
http://www.theghostlystore.com/Screen=PROD&Store_Code=TGS&Product_Code=GI-059-DLD.zip&Category_Code
=
Also available on iTunes.
Thanks in advance for your support!
http://www.textura.org/reviews/twine_violets.htm
http://www.textura.org/reviews/twine_article2008.htm
J
Twine: Violets
After five long years, Greg Malcolm and Chad Mossholder return from the
wilderness with their fourth Twine full-length Violets, the soundtrack for a
dying civilization whose members and nations seem to be at perpetual war
with one another and hell-bent on contaminating whatever collective
resources still remain. As a sonic analogue, it's an oft-bleak portrait but
anyone living in the US since 2000 will understand why.
The product of long distance file-sharing with the partners residing in
separate cities, Violets reveals a marked shift in style from the group's
third, self-titled album. Whereas it retained some degree of kinship with
Autechre-styled IDM, Violets has more in common sonically with the
psychedelic, guitar-centric doomscaping of Set Fire To Flames and bands of
that ilk; though the burbling electronic beats in "Disconnected" recall
Twine's style, Violets is ultimately more Alien8 and Constellation than
Warp. Over a hazy bed of tremolo guitars and electronics in "In Through the
Devices," Twine layers a phone conversation between a troubled teenager and
concerned adult that's fraught with anguish—a powerful device similarly
deployed by Set Fire To Flames and Godspeed You! Black Emperor on their
recordings. Voices of different kinds surface elsewhere too, their
disembodied presence indicative of dislocation, isolation, and alienation.
In addition, a brooding, dread-filled spirit permeates the material in a
manner that calls to mind the music of Angelo Badalamenti.
Violets begins in a relatively placid mode but follows a progressively
nightmarish trajectory with the advent of each subsequent piece. "Small"
opens the album beautifully with a plaintive, reverb-soaked guitar theme
that gracefully sighs against a rain-soaked backdrop—hardly a harbinger for
the disturbed visions to come. The enveloping ambiance continues into
"Endormie" with the alluring vocal presence of Cranes' Alison Shaw; a sense
of impending doom, however, emerges in the disorientation expressed by a
child's utterance "There's a wonderful place out there / But I don't know
where to go." In the dirge-like title piece, guitars and wailing voices are
slowly dragged into a murky undertow, never to be heard from again. However,
just when it appears that all hope is gone, "Lightrain" flirts with the
possibility of resurrection when its dense brew of electronics, guitars, and
piano appears to blossom towards the end of its thirteen minutes, as if
straining towards the light piercing through Violets' cracks. Perhaps having
Gail Schadt's pure voice rise above the shuddering electronics in the coda
"Something Like Eternity" is Twine's way of saying that maybe there's still
room for hope after all. Regardless, the album ultimately registers as a
fabulously immersive listen and, as a complete listening experience,
immensely satisfying.
June 2008
http://www.textura.org/reviews/twine_violets.htm
http://www.textura.org/reviews/twine_article2008.htm