CD review: Twin Brother’s ‘Best Frenzy’

By Spencer Patterson

Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2011 | 6:19 p.m.

The Details

Twin Brother

Best Frenzy

Dancing to Twin Brother can be a tricky endeavor. A packed Downtown venue froze up during the Vegas band’s recent album-release show—after the same crowd had bounced its way through two openers’ sets. Not because Twin Brother’s music lacks rhythm, mind you. The locals’ songs are so rhythmically complex, it’s tough knowing quite how to move to them.

That’s exactly how the six-piece-turned-quartet likes it. From its trippy song titles to its erupting cover art, Twin Brother is out to keep you off-kilter, and debut Best Frenzy certainly does that. Most of its 10 tracks play like psychedelic pastiches, forging forceful and fragile in combinations most bands only dare to dream about.

When it works, it’s hypnotic. “Places With Names” neatly trades hard-driving call and response for velvety near-whispering. “Different Hue” begins like a ballad, builds strength, then segues smoothly into a pond of Pink Floydian tranquillity. And the lushly harmonic ending of “Only in My Head” puts an epic cap on what seconds earlier seemed a quiet interlude.

Occasionally, Twin Brother’s strange composites feel more like patchwork. Nothing discernible ties together the hushed first section of “Always Split Apart” with the peppy thrust that follows, as if two interesting ideas were spliced together solely so neither would go to waste. Still, Twin Brother’s strange experiment succeeds more often than not. The sharp tempo shift midway through closer “Do You Feel Better?” might jolt you a couple of times before becoming the moment—a dramatic doorway to a glorious home stretch. Careful not to hurt yourself when it arrives.