Twin Drugs Stream In Now Less Than Ever in Full; Album Out Friday
Richmond, Virginia, noisegazers Twin Drugs release their second album, In Now Less Than Ever, on Oct. 7 through Crazysane Records, and with it, they proffer a twisted-reality psychedelia not so much to escape the vagaries of the daily trudge as to portray them in all their offsetting infliction. With 10 songs and 45 minutes that loop and drum/drum-machine like Godflesh and Jesu put together while running guitars and whatever the hell that is in “We Want Our Heaven” through a Sonic Youth-ian vision of post-everything noise — also they’re heavy — the trio of guitarist/vocalist Blake Melton, bassist Christian Monroe and drummer/electronicsist Alex Wilson hold a mirror up to where we are as a species and seem to ask if we’re living in an alternate timeline. The answer to that question, invariably, is yes.
At some point along what should have been our timeline — maybe it was Watergate, maybe it was the Challenger explosion, 20 years of needless war, 50 years of ignoring climate change, or someone stepping on the wrong bug a million years ago — humans branched off in a weird and mostly tragic direction. Not saying there aren’t upsides to existence, but if the pill-y tripped-out interlude “Fanfare” ahead of the bombastic assertions of “Eyelets and Aglets” is anything to go by, Twin Drugs know that at some point yet to be identified, the species took a turn from what had been its logical course of progress and we’ve been shitting the bed ever since. There’s some mourning, perhaps, in In Now Less Than Ever, but in post-modern style, the wash of “Ash Candied Cough” begins the album with a post-apocalyptic soundscape underscored by repeating swirls; you, out there 
amid the whipping dust of the wasteland.
Speaking of dust, the later stomp and cacophony of “Dust Worship” takes the more-flat-teeth bite of “World Fell Off” and turns it to a definitive gnash, and as much as Melton‘s quiet melodic vocals — all things ‘gaze are having a moment; don’t be mad about it; just be glad no one’s yelling at you right this second — tie the proceedings together along with that atmosphere of we-took-songwriting-and-bent-it-this-way, there is a spectrum of muted colors being explored through these sounds. All tinted grey, maybe, but pinks and greens and a kind of brownish yellow in “The Velvet Noise,” textured in three aural dimensions; length, width, depth. You could lose a day reading about the mathematics being seemingly referenced in “Room 110,” the relationship between chaos and proof-based order, but the drumless effects/synth wash seems to get the point across without lyrics, answering the caustic beginning of “Ash Candied Cough” with a more meditative, resolute sadness.
Though it feels conclusive, “Room 110” isn’t the end of In Now Less Than Ever. The closing duo “Sazerac” (6:00) and “The Sun While You Can” (7:14) make their own gravy on side B with post-noise sway, charge, and exhaustion in the former and unsafe-at-any-volume volatility in the latter, Melton‘s vocals barely discernible as they seem to be swallowed up by the rising tide of the finale’s midsection. They go quietly on a fade after a burst of intensity marked by particularly gutted-out drumming, but the message by then has been thoroughly delivered. And I hate to argue, but as I look at unprecedented storm surge destroying lives and livelihoods, wildfires burning centuries-old forests, the rise of fascism here in America and abroad, the very oceans dying and no one gives a fuck because capitalism, two years of plague to the point that everyone just kind of gave up (myself included), I think Twin Drugs are very, very much ‘in now.’ If that’s less than ever, it’s still plenty. They’ve captured the warped zeitgeist of right now. As such, don’t expect an easy listen.
And as for the whole living-in-an-alternate-timeline thing: First of all, we should be so lucky to have reality be unreal. Second, doesn’t matter anyway. Just do your best not to be a dick. Thanks for reading.
You’ll find In Now Less Than Ever streaming on the player below, followed by more background from the PR wire.
Please enjoy:
Twin Drugs, In Now Less Than Ever album premiere
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Noisy shoegazers TWIN DRUGS return with their self-produced sophomore album, taking their brand of ‘maximalist’ shoegaze in a more brooding, introspective direction. “Being a prepper is normal these days,” says main-songwriter Blake Melton (guitars & vocals), concisely capturing the decay of our modern world. Hailing from Richmond, VA, the trio originally set out to combine the dreamy atmospheres of My Bloody Valentine with the punishing riffing of Metz to create an upbeat and energetic experience of sound. However, upon being confronted with the increasing complexity of life throughout the years, the band made a decisive take a turn for the darker.
“Covid is just one grain of sand in the hourglass of general existential anxiety,” Melton continues, referring to the increasing complexity and ambiguity of our lives in an age of mass-deception, proxy wars and global panic. Inspired by cosmic horror and the near-psychedelic archival footage compilations of British documentary filmmaker Adam Curtis, Melton, together with bandmates Alex Wilson (drums, live-electronics) and Christian Monroe (bass), collages the band’s own image of a world in decay. Mastered to perfection by Cult of Luna’s Magnus Lindberg and with cover art by Christopher Royal King (Symbol, ex-This Will Destroy You), In Now Less Than Ever is a complete experience that creeps up on you like only existential dread can.
In Now Less Than Ever merges two distinct approaches to distortion (shoegaze and noise rock) to create a mind-altering experience that is as much about dreaming on as it is about waking up. The familiarity of found audio extracts, ranging from Indian flute players to obscure Japanese jazz bands, blends with subtle shifts in rhythm, creating a fitting experience of the world’s structural ambiguity. Using noise to induce a turbulent trip and soothing vocals for an indefinite high, TWIN DRUGS take you on a hallucinogenic voyage, conjuring from the haze – images of an oppressive hidden reality.
Tags: Crazysane Records, In Now Less Than Ever, Richmond, Twin Drugs, Twin Drugs In Now Less Than Ever, Virginia
