One Track Mind

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

[ download ]

Brooklyn’s George Lewis, Jr. shares much in common with Class Actress‘ Elizabeth Harper. Both have their mail delivered to Brooklyn addresses, both began recording their music not so long ago in the solitude of their bedrooms (although Harper’s since gone the proper band route), both have (or will have) released music on Terrible Records, the label run by Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor, and both are practitioners of a novel, chilled out, future noir aesthetic. Under his Twin Shadow alias, Lewis is poised to release his first 7″ in March, followed by the aforementioned recordings for Terrible. His debut tracks were co-produced by Mike Silver–elsewhere known as Midnight Mike or, more popularly, as Mickey Moonlight of the Ed Banger roster–who has previously collaborated with the likes of Jack Peñate, Findlay Brown, and Franz Ferdinand.

“Castles in the Snow” begins with some ominously arranged keyboard notes, which float over synth pads that hang in the air like ghosts. Not long thereafter (and apropos of the theme), both disappear entirely, replaced instead with dueling bass and electric guitars, and augmented by the odd tambourine burst and hand clap. Lewis multi-tracks his vocals to create a spectral chorus before pulling all of the disparate elements together and pushing forward on all cylinders. For the song’s resolution, a structural loop is completed with the synthesizers once again providing the exclusive accompaniment to Lewis’ final verse. Rather than climax, “Castles in the Snow” chooses to dissolve, a hot breath slowly evaporating away from a frosty windowpane.