Bio: Violets is a requiem for the new dark age. A memoir of a dying era, defined by the years of an inevitably dichotomized and isolated nation.
On their long-awaited sixth full length, the duo of Greg Malcolm and Chad Mossholder move from the muggy backwoods of their early work towards the sonic approximation of icy remoteness. Created by a process of long distance file-sharing, the layers of Violets mesh together in a synchronous and fragile splendor, melding disembodied vocals, guitar rattles and crispy unpredictability to create a modern classic.
The recurring theme of Violets is indeed a fascination with the human voice – voyeuristic telephone and CB conversations, the musings of a girl on dictaphone, crowd noises from anti-war rallies - these elements hover just beneath the lush and temperamental musical surface. On “Endormie”, guitar plucks crystallize in real-time, while the voice of legendary Cranes vocalist Alison Shaw surfaces in frosted gasps. The result is a calming and inescapable melancholic pull. Elsewhere, the massive leitmotif of “Disconnected” evokes images of a lonely neighbor practicing his weathered 6-string in a barren room while explosions overtake his home and psyche.
Twine have crafted their most highly polarizing and fully realized record to date. Violets casts a haunting shadow and its many inspirations, from the largesse of world affairs, to the minutiae of domestic life, reinforce its startling relevance in an age of cultural fracture and discontent.
The Twinesound is a structure meets noise vs. melody sound, always morphing into something new. Glitchy beats collapse into warm swarms of static, long atmospheric drones become abstract soundscapes where cold dark ambience and stark angular structures meetAs much a noisy, ambient experience as any heard today, from Fennesz's Endless Summer to Black Dice's Beaches and Canyons, Twine also draws influence from the free-floating, sand-blasted vocals of Cocteau Twins. This is a story of the fuzzy lines that connect and distance humanity, and the spiritual in-between that emerges in the nighttime hours. (less)
