It seems a crying shame that the death of Morphine man, Mark Sandman should give rise to one of the most classy and accomplished albums of 2003 – but that’s what happened. With a manifesto that was simply ‘to continue to create unusual music’ sax-man Dana Colley and drummer Billy Conway have built upon their ten year and one Grammy nominated past to produce ‘Twinemen’ – their first original project since their time with Morphine – and looking almost inevitably like a top-tenner Crud’s annual Xmas pick o’ the pops.
In a murky, smoky and freakishly sombre spoilage of sleaze and melancholia, the ‘Twinemen’ spit out the weary heavy groove of opening track, ‘Spinner’, sung by Laurie Sargent and backed up by a wonderfully swirly ensemble of angry kick drum, slide-bass (courtesy of Andrew Mazzone) and sax. It’s brave, it’s heady and it’s vaguely reminiscent of latter-day sleaze garage merchants, The Raveonettes. That said there’s also tangible elements of Portishead, Goldfrapp, Zero 7 – and yes, even the VU.
It may be a tad more jazzy than some of you pant swinging indie boys are prepared to tolerate, but for those of you have been getting out of the pubs and into the clubs of late, you might find the purring lilt of chill-out tracks like ‘Little By Little’, ‘Golden Hour’, ‘Chose Sauvage’ and ‘Watch You Fall’ to be some of the sweetest lounge core available on digital record. So sluggish and so sleazy that it leaves a little lime trail of warm, moist magic in its wake, ‘Twinemen’ is almost so unbearably laid-back that you could place a cup of mouthwash beside side it and call it a dentists’ chair. And call me a square, if you like, but what makes it even more amazing, is the fact that the album manages to avoid the usual ironic and needlessly reflexive pitfalls of retro. And as much I love the odd cup of Goldfrapp, I have to admit that the Twinemen provide far less bitter a bean.
Whether you favour the Brazilian Tanto Tempos of ‘Learn To Fly’ or the dangerously low-life provisions of ‘Ronnie Johnson’ (like something dripping bloodily off Roy Budd’s Get Carter soundtrack) the Twinemen oil and anoint the parts that other bands simply cannot reach.
Nice.