Circles Chase Spirals

Vanishing Twin “Big Moonlight (Ookii Gekkou)”

There’s a lot of overlap in the aesthetics of Vanishing Twin and the late, great Broadcast – a certain 20th century futuristic style, a polite vocal style that signals intellectualism and introversion – but there’s a totally different sense of gravity to the music. “Big Moonlight” feels so light that parts of the arrangement seem to be floating away from the central bass line and jazzy beat. Every element in the song is crisp and clear but arranged in the stereo image in a way that feels a little uncanny, particularly when an organ part seems to teleport into the song about halfway through, a counterpart to the more distant chanted backup vocals. It’s not a jarring shift but it’s an unexpected texture that changes the atmosphere while keeping the song rooted in a dreamy sort of jazz.

Buy it from Bandcamp.