Gazelle Twin rounds off her amazing 2018 album Pastoral era with two double AA singles. The first was a Christmas day release – making her own brand of psychopathic horror festive. The second single, released this month is more of an experimental electronica collection.
Dirge MMXVIII contains two tracks. ‘Gaudette’ is a slow grinding industrial beat with warped synths like voices and recorders crawling along. Gazelle Twin’s trademark horror-movie vocal delivery runs at two paces. There’s a flickering high speed spoken track that creates most of the dissonant voice before phasing into a coherent vocal point. It then fizzles back again into a freaky noise show. ‘Silent Night’ is easily the creepiest version of the Christmas carol I’ve heard. Bent wind echoes grimly echo out over Gazelle Twin’s more operatic singing. To say this is a re-imagining is an understatement and I love it.
The’ Fool’ single kicks off with its title track. It’s an electronica circus of beats, trickling bleeps and increasingly psychotic buzzing basslines. It harks back to her previous work on ‘Unflesh’ where the music was claustrophobic on purpose. The practically instrumental track moves into ‘Unquiet Thoughts’ which is a spectrum of high speed shimmering metallic pads. It’s something you’d hear more from Phillip Glass – but in electronic form instead. Slowly other keyboard synths drone in. The track is like musical tinnitus – which I appreciate doesn’t sound delightful but it certainly pumps me up. Its abrupt stop is a statement of intent too – did we hit clarity or did we do something to numb the noise?
Both double singles are worthy additions to the Pastoral era – particularly for fans of her earlier works. They bring the different sides of Gazelle Twin into the fray – I just would start at an album first if you are completely new.
Recommended track: Silent Night
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Gazelle Twin - Fool
