One of the things that I remarked upon when listening to Moontwin’s previous single, “Symbols,” was how spacious everything was, how much room there was for everything to breathe, and how much light shone through the heart of the song. “Storm In A Shell,” the new one, might be a more sonically weighty piece, but it still shimmers with similar translucent and trance-like qualities.
It’s a neat trick to pull off, but if anyone can do it, Moontwin can as they prove perfectly here. The fact that the song is full of shimmering synth washes and walls of beguiling sonics, drives on confident and defined beats, and is shot through with resonant shards of guitar doesn’t hide the fact that Melanie Garside’s voice brings a dream-like quality, floating perhaps adjacent to, above and beyond the music rather than being woven through Zac Kuzmanov’s more tangible soundscapes.
And it is this balancing act of sonic weight and vocal delicacy, this ability to build more solid music as a vehicle for vocals that border on the ethereal, that makes this so intriguing and compelling.
“Storm In A Shell” exists in a place where the raw edge of post-punk is smoothed and softened by dream-pop’s poised and perfected ways, where the chilled end of the dancefloor sound drifts into ever more ambient forms, and where pop infectiousness and cinematic integrity waltz slowly across the musical landscape.
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