We’ve covered the dream pop of Los Angeles duo Twin Oaks a few times already here at WTD, with both the mellow Lion’s Den and dreamy EP Not An Exit summed up by a line in our review of the latter: “[collections] of songs that sound confidently crafted and fully controlled, holding the hand of the listener through beautiful oneiric landscape they have created.”
The intervening years have seen the duo release a variety of singles along with 2015’s full album, White Noise, which saw the Twin Oaks sound grow into grander, more epic soundscapes full of ethereal guitars and pounding drums. Now the band are preparing a brand new EP, Collapse, to be put out sometime this summer. After the unveiling of lead single ‘Eighteen Minutes‘ late last year, we’re delighted to present second single ‘Nothing’ to further increase the anticipation of the EP.
Mixed and mastered by Grammy Award-winning engineer Cassidy Turbin, the track perfects Twin Oaks’ odd ability to sound at once stark and lush, Brown’s contained, ominous vocals cycling with unnerving rhythm, each repetition triggering an escalation in the instrumentation. So while the first verse plays to dark dream folk along the lines of Daughter, the second is accompanied by a near post-rock drum thump, the intensity surging by the closing minutes with a wall of electric guitar and feedback drone.
“Please forgive me, for I have sinned
I’m not my own friend
Feel the weight of the world sink in
I’m drowning in thisPulling back my skin
Digging deep with it
I’m finding nothing
I’m finding nothing”