That perennial appeal of vinyl struck again with the mere mention of this release being on pink vinyl being enough to turn curiosity about this Amsterdam based band’s LP into a need and, with but a few days impatient wait, “The Twilight State” soon found itself on the turntable of doom at Bluesbunny Towers.
That (sort of marbled) pink vinyl certainly catches the eye but it is merely the 33rpm rotating packaging for the music. So, what of the actual music? “The Twilight State” is definitely an album of two sides with divergent directions evident. Side A provides a European take on the post rock meet shoegaze style with much made of power chords and repetition to make the musical point. Not exactly different and Saskia Van Der Giessen’s voice often gets lost in the mix though “Indulgent” stands out for powering up the passion by a very noticeable amount. Side B, on the other hand, sounds more like a band that has found its own direction with the sound quality improving in parallel. There is more space in what they play if you like with less made of repetition and more made of setting up a hypnotic groove and then breaking it up with sonic punctuation. “Duplicated”, for example, could easily be the product of some New York post punk band through the use of stylised vocal approach and edgy guitar while “Way Out” would have found Labasheeda a home on the Factory label back in its heyday.
So, all in all, “The Twilight State” is a respectable album with the songs on the second side providing more than adequate proof of this band’s potential to develop themselves into something special.
Available from the band's website.