Released: 28th February 2020
Rating: ★★★★
Sometimes when listening to something for the first time, you experience a neutrality of emotions. A thought-provoking moment that inspires the occasional smile, a simple nod of the head, or a little bit of stank face. With Nova Twins’ debut, expect all of this dialled up to a thousand. ‘Who Are The Girls?’ is made up of ten songs with jaw-dropping break downs, searing riffs that make you tense up, and brazen lyrics that hit you in the chest.
The past year has been a whirlwind for the fully DIY band – from a plethora of festival appearances to signing with Jason Aalon Butler’s artist collective, 333 Wreckords – and the album’s release is a triumphant way of rounding it all up, before catapulting back out into the madness. Nova Twins have always been a band that are impossible to define. With nobody in the industry as unique as they are, they’ve had to carve their own path and make up the own rules as they go on.
‘Play Fair’ serves as guttural garage punk, while ‘Ivory Tower’ is a melancholic blues number which contrasts against everything they’ve recorded so far. It is perplexing how the duo manage to create such a rumbling assault of noise, but they remain consistently fresh throughout. Amy Love’s vocals fleet between psychotic baby doll and razorblade rasp which is complimented and amplified by Georgia South’s complex assemblage of pedals that build up a mystifying bubble of tension and an echo chamber of hallucinatory noise. ‘Taxi’ conjures up similarities to Muse, and ‘Undertaker’ unleashes a complex amount of layers into the aural experience, which will no doubt make for some intense headbanging sessions.
The album climaxes in a thunderous battering of bass and screeching vocals that eventually leave you exhilarated and satisfied. It’s been quite the wait for this album, but it has definitely surpassed expectation.
Tyler Damara Kelly
