BOX AND THE TWINS

The Cologne based band Box and the Twins is indeed an odd thing - together with her ex-lover Marc, and her fiancé Mike, artist and trained psychologist Box creates sublime, fallen out of time Music - equally enchanting, disturbing, sparkling songs, a wistful search for meaning and significance of patterns in this universal voidness.

After two EPs, the band releases its debut album Everywhere I go is Silence on Manic Depression Records & Synth Religion. Produced by Hélène de Thoury (Hante), the composition of melancholic guitars and dark electronics complements the vision of an eternal autumn, creating the perfect soundtrack for the season.

First song (and at the same time first single outtake) on the album is Pale Bleu Dot. A dark and strange atmosphere is created. Dark synths get the help of some gentle guitars and deep female voices. You can almost feel the hand of Hélène de Thoury. Gravity has more guitars in it. This Place Called Nowhere has some shoegaze-sounding guitars and a typical synth-drum-sound. The vocals sound dark and deep.

In Perfume Well we hear male and female vocals dancing with each other. The vocals sound happy, allthough the song remains very dark. Hundred Flowers is a lingering song. It feels as if the words are crawling. And the guitars create tension. And that same tension stays with us in Birds.A lament of guitars screaming for help, as if it is the last sound they will produce. Guilty Red has a higher pace. Beautiful guitars and vocals blend perfectly together. Ice cold synths are the prelude of Ice Machine. Freezing cold shoegaze it is. Sometimes The Wave could have be the soundtrack of a good old western movie. When I was listening, I saw two clans, with guns drawn, in an old American village in the dessert. Curtains is a very sensitive song. A kind of ballad. With Western Horizon and Notes To The Spiders, we get another two great songs, both intimate, with enough tension.

Everywhere I Go Is Silence is a great debut album: twelve songs and very different styles. We hear synthwave, shoegaze, even some post-punk influences here and there. This band has gained at least one new fan... And I think that many will follow....

Jurgen BRAECKEVELT
11/12/2016