Twin Court’s Evocatively Enigmatic “Sage Creek” is Like a Fusion of 1970s Art Rock and Weirdo Indie Folk

Twin Court, photo courtesy the artists

“Sage Creek” by Ithaca, New York’s Twin Court is the kind of song that has a softness and vulnerability that one might most often associate with a slowcore or indie folk type of band. But there’s a tonal uniqueness that may come from the band’s use of gamelan, bonang and harmonium along with the guitars. The song structure is also rather avant-garde with repeated themes to hypnotic effect and layered, interlocking rhythms that one most often hears in music out of the 1970s art rock tradition like a far more mellow and minimal Magma or Yes when the latter is in its more pastoral moments. It’s a song worth taking in full because it rewards the patient listener as the song progresses from its spare beginnings to weaving in an array of sounds in miniature orchestral fashion with GK Fulton’s vocals hitting and sustaining notes that interact with the rest of the music at unorthodox but always interesting angles giving the whole song an enigmatic character that sustains your interest until the end. Astute listeners may even here resonance with “Blue Milk” by Stereolab and/or a Linda Perhacs song in their ability to stir the imagination and demand acceptance on their idiosyncratic terms. Listen to “Sage Creek” on YouTube and follow Twin Court at the links below.

Twin Court on Instagram

Kyoto Kyoto’s Art Prog Post-Punk Track “Trier” is Driven by an Orchestrated Nervous and Furious Energy

Kyoto Kyoto, photo by Hanna Gabler

“Trier” by Kyoto Kyoto sounds like someone wound up one of those recent UK post-punk bands and sped up its trajectory with Wire-like nervy intensity. It seethes with energy and it sounds like it is going to come off the rails but the precision of the rhythm is hidden with bursts of noise and furious arpeggios that dissolve a third of the way through the song to give way to a rapid bass line that pulses in a repeated pattern joined by guitar and drums in a tight pattern while vocals seem to chant with an urgent message like it’s all riding headlong to a mysterious destination. At times it sounds like Hella and a hyperkinetic version of Yes newly inspired by the likes of black midi and drawing some inspiration by Carl Orff with an update on a bit of Carmina Burana. Orchestral math rock with the art punk sensibilities of a current post-punk band that didn’t get the memo that it needed to sound like something in any current trend in that style of music. Listen to “Trier” (as in Lars von Trier? Who can say?) on Spotify and connect with Kyoto Kyoto at the links provided.

Kyoto Kyoto on Facebook

Kyoto Kyoto on Twitter

Kyoto Kyoto on Bandcamp

Kyoto Kyoto on Instagram