Hollow Twin, Raine Hamilton, and Psychic Pollution
Hollow Twin
Soft Hearts // Self Released
Becky Wosk and Emmalee Watts make up the incredible duo Hollow Twin. Their debut album, titled Soft Hearts, takes you on a beautiful journey from the minute the first note plays through your speakers. Magic, mystic, elegance, and sorrow are intertwined in this incredible collection of songs. There is no mistaking that “the connection between Watts and Wosk is palpable”, and they are including us in this connection.
The release includes a song called “Low Clouds” and brings us, as listeners, along the tumultuous paths of yearning for a departed love. Wanting more, begging for things to be different, and earnestly pleading to have a deeper relationship than the one we have with the emptiness. There is a soft and beautiful pain that is evident in every word, and by the time you make it halfway through the song, you know it is going to be something you never forget the feeling of, or where you were when you first heard it. The questions and anxieties surrounding relationships and fragile hearts are clearly laid out, all cards on the table. This is a final call to repair something that is already too broken.
Using steady, impactful instrumentals and authentic lyrics, Hollow Twin is able to tap into a commonality we all experience. Listening to this album, I felt nostalgic and sad and lonely and comforted all at once. The simplicity of the songs invites self-reflection and allows for thoughts to freely flow, enabling us to make our own connections and memories to these songs. It feels as though you are a part of a conversation between friends that truly want to express themselves to you and hear what you have to say in return.
I have so much respect for the layering and harmonies of such gorgeous voices, and I think the ability to create something that can make you tap your feet and cry at the same time is a true craft. If you are looking for something new to add to your playlist that wraps you in a cocoon of ethereal, sad-girl goodness, this is it!
- Krystle McGrath
Raine Hamilton
Brave Land // Self Released
How can you not fall in love after jumping into Raine Hamilton’s newest record, Brave Land and its first track “Love Has Come For Me”? Well I absolutely did and I am admittedly ashamed I haven’t heard them sooner.
The brilliance, heart, and good vibes the opening track delivers is filled with visions of hope and joy coupled with an intensely intimate and talented string trio.
The trio consists of Raine on guitar and fiddle, with collaborators Quintin Bart on double bass and Natanielle Felicitas on cello. This baroque folk trio has such a vibrant sound, they had me tapping my foot immediately… and that’s just seconds into the first track.
What comes next is a beautiful ode to nature and the land around us in the track “Brave Land”. The entire album in fact is inspired by the mountains. Raine took a trip there whilst touring and was so inspired they composed this wonderful piece of art dedicated to the beauty and majesty of the Rockies.
As you continue to dive in to this diverse yet very structured concept album you start to become aware of the emotional, spiritual and natural journey you are now on along with Hamilton.
I’m not going to give away much else as you really need to experience this modern masterpiece of music yourself. Though I believe this is best experienced as a whole in a single sitting (for first timers like me) I will mention a couple of the stand outs for me.
“It Matters” is a powerful song about respect and heritage and standing up for it in the form of a rousing fight song.
“Dreamer” is quite simply a beautiful piece of instrumental music. Best heard with headphones on, perhaps a glass of Pinot Noir in hand. In fact, the entire album is best experienced in this manor or a similar way…. headphones up, eyes closed and jump in.
It’s worth mentioning how great of a human Raine is as well. While offering fiddle and songwriting workshops to their community, Raine also tours with an ASL (American Sign Language) interpreter for their live shows proving music truly is for everyone and should be accessible to everyone.
This record truly has something for most musical tastes and it is one of the best journeys I’ve taken in a while. Kudos to Raine Hamilton and their trio for this wonderful record, now…. off to find copy on vinyl!
- Chris Vasseur
Psychic Pollution
Psy-Ops // Self Released
If first impressions of this album bring to mind a score to a sci-fi film from the 80s, you likely wouldn’t be far off from a few of the influences of J. Schuurman, the Victoria-based artist behind the musical project Psychic Pollution. After all, Psychic Pollution released a fantastically rendered live set of covers of John Carpenter’s music in 2017. As de facto Grand Maestro of retro genre flick soundtracks, Carpenter has left big footprints with his iconic scores, alongside a pantheon of synth deities like Vangelis and Goblin. To anyone who has sat on the floor of a basement with a VCR and a bowl of popcorn, these sounds are synonymous with the legendary visuals they accompanied.
In Psy-Ops, Psychic Pollution’s 18th full length LP, these sonic motifs are fired into the outer reaches of the galaxy. Described as a soundtrack to a secret agent film set in space, we are swept aboard a doomed spacecraft whose steering console bears a striking resemblance to a Prophet synthesiser, our destination unknown.
It is impossible not to imagine grand set pieces unfolding as the album progresses. From the opening pulse of “Escape Pod” we are met with a robotic voice warning us that “this is not a drill”. Steel corridors lit by sweeping red emergency lighting set the mood as stabs of white noise hiss at the edges of the stereo field like blasts from steam vents. “One Step Behind” takes us on a slow-burning pursuit as a relentless bassline keeps one foot on the gas and a tick-tocking beat reminds us that time is running out. “Battle of the Narrative” could be a sort of hero’s motif, cutting through church choir-esque vocal gestures swathed in reverb with triumphant synth leads that shimmer through the mist. With a title that pays homage to Blade Runner, “The Rain, a Dove and Death” washes over us with layers of sweeping filters that cascade into one another, ascending into a redemptive chorus that swirls with metallic hues. ”Rendezvous with Rama” takes us into the underbelly of the city, where distant blips sound like water dripping in a dim cavern while the droning bass warns us of the danger ahead. On “Neon Embrace” the space-acid kicks in and we are thrust into an alien nightclub, overtaken on the dancefloor by an unapologetically dancey beat rippling with lysergic bliss as duelling synths freakout overhead and laser lights sweep across the crowd. Stand-out track “Credible Truths” trades the previous song’s pulse for a strut, and slurring, syrupy synths rise and fall drunkenly around the propulsive central rhythm. The asymmetrical beat of “Aftermath” is timid by comparison, foregrounding huge icy pads that swell out of the darkness. Album closer “Chrysalis” emerges slowly, thawing from cryogenic sleep as percussion builds over a looped sample that could just as easily be the sounds of a creature or a machine: shifting, breathing, maybe even trying to communicate. Crystalline stabs echo off the walls, an arpeggiating lead builds to a crescendo, and everything is swept away— leaving behind only a drone before that, too, is lost in space.
It is a testament to Psychic Pollution’s meticulously lush production that each repeat listen is so rewarding: new details and minutiae reveal themselves like zooming into a fractal that blooms ever-more shapes. The love and consideration with which Psy-Ops was made is evident, and for anyone who has daydreamed of spaceships and alien planets, secret missions and electric sheep, this album is pure gold.
- Harman Burns
