Rocker (feedbot)
Platinum Member
It just feels right to watch Nova Twins in London; it’s the hometown show, the last date of the tour, and our first chance to see their new record live. It’s also a chance for any fence-sitters to fully embrace the magnificent contrasts and contradictions which bloom like origami flowers from a band who remake the scene in their own image with every chance they have.
Naturally, their set is dominated by their latest album – they play almost the entirety of ‘Parasites and Butterflies’ – but that’s not a criticism in the slightest. We finally get to see the vision behind their songs realised, to be experienced in their full glory. The chorus to ‘Black Roses’ rings out like a war cry, with siren stances that break into alien riffs. Each track cracks open the urban jungle, giving us a taste of the cyborg future. ‘Sandman’ appears halting and daring, seemingly constructed from hidden complex machinery. Meanwhile ‘Piranha’ dredges whole worlds with each harbinger line, its menace and serrated beats sending a pint glass into the air like a fountain. Absolutely absorbing; ‘Hide & Seek’ slides in and out of genres and our reality, with its full sound fundamentally new and different from any other band.
What earns our adoration is how the musical illusion is woven together like spider silk: tough but delicate, creating something shining and lush. Georgia South makes shifting between her endless samples seem effortless – but a moment to consider just what she’s building at such a rapid pace will leave you awestruck. ‘Choose Your Fighter’ reminds us that their pixelated mosh joy is their secret move to unlock, and dropping ’N.O.V.A’ hits the button for fists up and female clapbacks from the crowd, Amy Love’s feral control whipping up the pit to fever pitch on the drop.
We knew we were in for a riot, but the absolute goosebump-moment wrought by ‘Hummingbird’? Not so much. “It’s about learning to walk side-by-side with grief; it’s about almost becoming friends with it to the point of acceptance,” Love shares plainly, casting a shadow of pain that pulses in the night before the lightning finally strikes on the riff. The depth of what they conjure shines, and we’re left dumbstruck. Unity is their watchword as they dedicate ‘Monsters’ to Amnesty International, the cleansing circle pit scrubbing us clean with steel wool distortion. They preach friendship before sounding the undulating chords of ‘Soprano’, the hesitant touch in each line countering the overwhelming confidence and verve they exude with every step.
‘Glory’ is the perfect closer; a wail, a raising praise chorus to our shared experience, stalking through rising notes up to the heavens, a millisecond of total silence, then an endless beehive of exotic electronic hope. Glitching and driven onwards as confetti flowers burst above us, we’re buoyed out from the Forum, held aloft by a set from a band who prove their hype is real. Tonight feels like a stepping stone for Nova Twins: an important one for sure, but just one spot on an endless path that strides across the musical landscape. Once the dust has settled and we’re able to lie back and enjoy the galaxies contained within ‘Parasites and Butterflies’ with detachment, we’ll know with absolute certainty that Nova Twins will re-appear to blow our minds once more.
KATE ALLVEY
Naturally, their set is dominated by their latest album – they play almost the entirety of ‘Parasites and Butterflies’ – but that’s not a criticism in the slightest. We finally get to see the vision behind their songs realised, to be experienced in their full glory. The chorus to ‘Black Roses’ rings out like a war cry, with siren stances that break into alien riffs. Each track cracks open the urban jungle, giving us a taste of the cyborg future. ‘Sandman’ appears halting and daring, seemingly constructed from hidden complex machinery. Meanwhile ‘Piranha’ dredges whole worlds with each harbinger line, its menace and serrated beats sending a pint glass into the air like a fountain. Absolutely absorbing; ‘Hide & Seek’ slides in and out of genres and our reality, with its full sound fundamentally new and different from any other band.
What earns our adoration is how the musical illusion is woven together like spider silk: tough but delicate, creating something shining and lush. Georgia South makes shifting between her endless samples seem effortless – but a moment to consider just what she’s building at such a rapid pace will leave you awestruck. ‘Choose Your Fighter’ reminds us that their pixelated mosh joy is their secret move to unlock, and dropping ’N.O.V.A’ hits the button for fists up and female clapbacks from the crowd, Amy Love’s feral control whipping up the pit to fever pitch on the drop.
We knew we were in for a riot, but the absolute goosebump-moment wrought by ‘Hummingbird’? Not so much. “It’s about learning to walk side-by-side with grief; it’s about almost becoming friends with it to the point of acceptance,” Love shares plainly, casting a shadow of pain that pulses in the night before the lightning finally strikes on the riff. The depth of what they conjure shines, and we’re left dumbstruck. Unity is their watchword as they dedicate ‘Monsters’ to Amnesty International, the cleansing circle pit scrubbing us clean with steel wool distortion. They preach friendship before sounding the undulating chords of ‘Soprano’, the hesitant touch in each line countering the overwhelming confidence and verve they exude with every step.
‘Glory’ is the perfect closer; a wail, a raising praise chorus to our shared experience, stalking through rising notes up to the heavens, a millisecond of total silence, then an endless beehive of exotic electronic hope. Glitching and driven onwards as confetti flowers burst above us, we’re buoyed out from the Forum, held aloft by a set from a band who prove their hype is real. Tonight feels like a stepping stone for Nova Twins: an important one for sure, but just one spot on an endless path that strides across the musical landscape. Once the dust has settled and we’re able to lie back and enjoy the galaxies contained within ‘Parasites and Butterflies’ with detachment, we’ll know with absolute certainty that Nova Twins will re-appear to blow our minds once more.
KATE ALLVEY