Fraternal Twin is the solo project of Quarterbacks bassist Tom Christie, which he uses to make home-recorded lo-fi folk music. Earlier this year he released an album, Skin Gets Hot, which had a more full-band aesthetic and featured several songs which first appeared on his split tape with Long Beard from back in 2014. His new EP Small Wind Power chooses a different path, one which will be more familiar to existing fans. The release has an air of cosy, dreamy simplicity, intimately weightless folk songs which dance on the breeze of Christie’s breath.
‘Lucky Cat’ reserved acoustics and hushed, almost whispered vocals, while ‘The Loud Word’ is a similarly acoustic track but with added electronics, little beeps and hums and shimmers, kind of like those which adorn the Lejsovka & Freund album we wrote about recently. ‘Small Wind Power’ is basically an acoustic folk song, and a pretty one at that, the morose vocals seemingly directed to Christie’s feet rather than the audience.
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‘Inside Out’ has a laid-back woozy feel, all backed up with the by-now familiar gentle acoustics. ‘Puddle Rock’ is a light and floaty instrumental guitar track, before the EP finishes with a cover of ‘Metamorphic Moon’ by fellow New Paltz band Wet Petals, a track which tentatively feels its way into life before the advent of sadly serene vocals:
“i reach out to touch the moon
and now there is nothing
but the moon;
no hands to touch,
no eyes to devour,
only a tarnished flower
torn from a dream”
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Small Wind Power is a lovely collection of songs which conjure a really nice feeling. They are enclosed and intimate, like sharing a heart-to-heart inside a tent at the height of summer, the tape hiss becoming the stridulations of insects, the trickle of the creek.
You can get Small Wind Power on cassette via Apollonian Sound, or as a name-your-price download via the Fraternal Twin Bandcamp page. The release supports the NJ Clean Water Fund, a really cool project that campaigns for some great health and environmental issues.