Slim Twig - Sof' Sike (album stream)

Toronto songwriter Slim Twig always has some unexpected tricks up his sleeve, and he's getting ready to unveil his latest creation on August 21 when Sof' Sike drops via Paper Bag Records. Prior to the album's official release date, you can stream the whole 13-track set below.


Thanks to Exclaim!

While much of Slim Twig's past work has relied on drum machines and samples, a press release notes that this latest effort is structured around "the psychedelic rumblings of live instrumentation: pianos, organs, guitar, bass, drums."

While his style remains "as idiosyncratic as ever," he now displays a fondness for the straightforward songwriting of classic acts like the Rolling Stones and the Who (plus stranger artists like R. Stevie Moore).

This is just the beginning of the new music from Slim, as he's got another new album on the way, plus a split LP on Clan Destine Records with Dirty Beaches, Ela Orleans and U.S. Girls.

By Alex Hudson for Exclaim!

Biography

Slim Twig is a man, not a band. In the last 2 years (spent reclusively recording), the distinction has had to be made, as the once solo performer has more readily incorporated collaboration, most obviously by employing a crack accompanying band.

This development should come as little surprise; Slim Twig has torn through enough ideas and styles to finance a fistful of bands since releasing his first EPs in 2008. These earlier explorations include the prescient flirtation with an avant-rockabilly sensibility on Vernacular Violence (2008), and his full-length debut, Contempt! (2009), a re-appropriation of off-kilter sampling techniques gleaned from the RZA and Madlib, and presented in a decidedly un-Hip Hop-like format. The latter record stands out as one of the most strangely singular records released on a major Canadian indie label, and as an unsung pre-cursor to the solo, sample-based, oddball pop that by 2012, has become commonplace.

2012 sees the release of a wealth of new Slim Twig material. Appropriately for an artist as diversely prolific as Slim, the coming months will see two full-length album releases, as well as a 12”-split on Clan Destine Records with blog-favourite pals, Dirty Beaches, Ela Orleans, and U.S. Girls.

A new release on Paper Bag Records will be his first since 2009. Sof’ Sike can be seen as a dramatic left (er, make that a right) turn follow-up to Contempt! his last release on PBR. Replacing analog drum machines and scratched-record samples are the vaguely psychedelic rumblings of live instrumentation: pianos, organs, guitar, bass, drums! Sof’ Sike is a diverse collection of songs, and with its restless approach to genre and uncontained enthusiasm for POP, can be viewed in the lineage of records like The Who’s Sell Out, or Spark’s A Woofer In Tweeters Clothing.

Not one to be pigeon-holed, fall 2012 will also see the release of A Hound At The Hem, a narrative album collaboration with his band, consisting of Toronto session heavyweights, Carl Didur, Louis Percival & Tim Westberg, and with Owen Pallett. Taking its cue from Gainsbourg’s Histoire De Melody Nelson, A Hound At The Hem represents the ‘hard psych’ flipside to Sof’ Sike and that LP’s lighter touch.

With Slim Twig releases on Paper Bag Records, Pleasence, Calico Corp. and Clan Destine Records, the release of U.S. Girls new LP on FatCat, as well as releases by international acts, Eric Copeland & Sic Alps on Twig’s own Calico Corp. imprint, 2012 promises to coax Slim out of his reclusiveness.

Links
http://slimtwig.blogspot.ca/
http://slimtwig.bandcamp.com/
http://www.myspace.com/slimtwig
http://www.last.fm/music/Slim+Twig
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slim_Twig