Vanishing Twin’s debut album, 2016’s Choose Your Own Adventure, featured the British band’s integration of psychedelic pop à la Broadcast’s first three albums and the instrumental/textural sophistications of mid-career Stereolab, with the majority of tracks occurring as ambitious, albeit frequently imitative, reconfigurations. Their second full-length release, last year’s The Age of Immunology, affirms the band’s ties to the above-mentioned artists as well as the sub-genre of ambient pop—though with significant departures from inherited stylistics. With this project, the band displays a more consummate skill for crafting melodic hooks. Protracted instrumental segments hold the listener’s attention more consistently, the quintet navigating complex rhythms and innovative progressions. In addition, the band references and re-contextualizes 50-plus years of electro-ambience, from the primitive sounds of Kraftwerk to the refined vistas of Suso Sáiz.
“Magician’s Success” contains the project’s most mainstream melody and composition, reminiscent of Camera Obscura’s brand of indie pop, particularly various tracks from Let’s Get Out of This Country (2006) and My Maudlin Career (2009). On one of the album’s more intriguing lyrics, Lucas sings, “The noise of hope / is like a racket in my heart,” her underscoring of the notion that hope is often desire well-masked, simply “attachment” packaged in a less offensive form. These lyrics can’t help but nudge a listener to consider the role of hope in their own life, to ask: what is life without hope? How, without the balm of hope, do we successfully navigate our world, its pressing issues and unique crises? Does the release of hope facilitate a greater level of acceptance and, thereby, open new possibilities for action that may not have been previously entertained? From: https://brooklynrail.org/2020/03/music/The-Best-Band-You-Never-Heard-Of-Vanishing-Twins-Global-Aesthetic/
