Electronica with soul. Shoegaze with vision. These are a few phrases that come to mind when I listen to “Night Tides”, the new album from Lunar Twin. Originality usually comes at a price, and that price is risk. Lunar Twin pays that price with cash and gives all they have in every track of “Night Tides” by giving their all in every track and treating every track as if it is the only track. There is no filler here.
About Lunar Twin
After much excitement following the release of their single ‘Waves’, Lunar Twin are releasing their new ‘Night Tides’ EP through iconic Texas-based dreampop-shoegaze label Moon Sounds Records. This release is sure to appeal to fans of Nick Cave, Mark Lanegan, David Sylvian, and Massive Attack.
This is the band’s third significant release, following their debut ‘Lunar Twin EP’ (2014) on Lunar Industry Records, the duo’s own imprint, and ‘Champagne Remixes’ (2015) through German boutique label Emerald & Doreen Records.
The EP literally flows from beginning to end, taking listeners on a journey through lush downtempo, synth and chill wave, and ultimately to the ocean at night. Tracks ‘Waves’, ‘Coral Sea’ and ‘Blood Moon’ seamlessly blend indie electronica and tropical noir, while synth and chill-wave are at their best on ‘Prayers of Smoke’, ‘Birds of Paradise’, and ‘Night Tides’.
A few years after a chance meeting at the Denver Underground Music festival, Bryce Boudreau and Chris Murphy started working under the Lunar Twin moniker in 2013. They derived the band’s name from a theory about earth having possibly had a twin moon. Inspired by space and time, as well as nature and culture.
Boudreau, vocalist and songwriter and also a Los Angeles native, currently resides in Hawaii, while multi-instrumentalist producer Chris Murphy lives in Salt Lake City. In recent years, he has shared the stage with numerous renowned artists, such as Grimes, Bonnie Prince Billy, and Peaches, through other projects he’s involved with.
“We both live thousands miles apart separated by the Pacific Ocean and miles of mountains and desert. These totally different places of isolation are the nexus of our songwriting”, states Chris Murphy from his home in downtown Salt Lake. “The ocean plays a big part in this album. The ebb and flow of the tide and the effect the moon has on it.”
“For this EP, we wanted to to channel the spirit of the primordial world and a lost island in the equatorial night feeling. The dense warm air smelling of flowers beneath a canopy of banyan trees,” says Bryce Boudreau. “’Waves’ is about drifting between two worlds – the primeval and the technological, and between Earth and Water spirits.”
‘Night Tides’ will be offered on limited edition lathe-cut vinyl via Lunar Industry Records, the duo’s own imprint. The vinyl pre-order is up now via Bandcamp, where the album is also available digitally. Already a very limited run of cassettes is available through Moon Sounds Records.
@lunartwinmusic [rotatingtweets screen_name=’lunartwinmusic’]
TRACKLIST:
- Waves
- Blood Moon
- Coral Sea
- Birds of Paradise
- Prayers of Smoke
- Night Tides
CREDITS
Recorded at Ohia Studios (Wailea, Hawaii) and Desert Heat (Salt Lake City)
Cover art by and photo credit: Sarah Rae Higgins and Justin Miyamoto
Mastering by Scott Selfridge
Video shot on location in Hilo, Hawaii
Lunar Twin photo credit: Waruni Herath, Desert Heat Studios
“Cosmopolitan Downtempo. Chill wave Duo Lunar Twin travel thru the minds eye to exotic expanse on their new record Night Tides”
– Big Takeover Magazine“Pulses of chill wave, ethereal dream pop, and psychedelia, faint elements of gothic and hip hop, hypnotic vocals and vintage synths, classic and modern sounds”
– Primal Music Blog“Haunted tropics and coastal neon rise from Boudreau’s overcast lyrics, and his gravelly croon ebbs and flows across an evocative, tropical noir sound”
– Salt Lake City Weekly“Brilliant lyrics with an affected tone fitting snugly between Nick Cave and Tindersticks’ Stuart Staples with a little of Matt Berninger of The National”
– Sound and Vision“This combination of smooth as silk vocals and perfectly crafted soundscapes has made Lunar Twin one of my favorite bands”
– Echosynthetic“Lynchian pop with a warm analogue glow. Night music for moon lovers”
– Mat Handley, Sine FM
LINKS:
http://www.lunartwin.com
http://www.facebook.com/Lunartwin
http://lunartwin.bandcamp.com
http://twitter.com/lunartwinmusic
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuvRCdg_rfg6YBMd324hNXg/videos
http://soundcloud.com/lunar-twin
http://instagram.com/chriscontroller
