the twilight babies

The Twilight Babies
If You Want Me to I Could Write it Down
Produced by The Twilight Babies

Not exactly electroclash (what exactly is electroclash, anyway?), not quite trip-hop, the hypnotic, sexy music of the Twilight Babies is the sort of otherworldly sound you hear drifting from apartment windows in the East Village, basement nightclubs in London, or in your own mental soundtrack that comes out on late-night drives.
It’s sophisticated and cosmopolitan, driven by alternately frenetic and halting loops with churning guitars and a wash of synths. And throughout, Alison Lewis’ haunting, Natalie Merchant-meets-Louise Rhodes of Lamb voice. The record’s electronica thrust is tempered with acoustic guitar and a Rickie Lee Jones reference on “Ballad of Chinook,” while “Stranded” rattles and clanks like Garbage meeting Nine Inch Nails at a Kraftwerk concert … but with less violence, I’m sure.
- DIY Record Reviews by Clay Steakley

Enjoying the success of their recent winners awards for best electronic group and electronic recording at the Detroit Music Awards, ‘If you want me to I could write it down’ is the debut release for trio Twilight Babies and a smouldering beauty it is.

In many respects it has the perfect credentials to be a classic folktronics album given that the ensemble is made up of Alison Lewis an established folk singer, Adam Walker and Mikey Brown members of the Nineteen Point Five Collective responsible for a host of award winning TV and web based sound scapes.

For reference points it’s a little more difficult as the trio seem to side step so many genres weaving them into the creative folds and atmospheric backdrops, at times the sounds are wildly uplifting at others edgy and far reaching, delicate twists of modern beats give way to an emotional dance attitude at play, ultimately their clever trip hop dynamics point towards a more subtle variation of Massive Attack, Everything but the Girl and Portishead.

In short this neatly subdued collection is a sound-trackists dream come true, brimming as it is with all manner of colourful swirling collages and dizzying gracefulness. ‘Highway of fire’ utilises roaming funk rhythms that lazily sprawl with blessed out ease almost sounding like a lounge jamming session. ‘Forlorn’ busies itself in a myriad of spacey textures, the quick tempo beats acting like blood rushes to the head all fired by the striking subtle blaze of a lone guitar. ‘Holiday’ serves as one of the albums high waters marks mainly due to it covering so many bases. Starting out with an almost Status Quo like 12 bar boogie, Lewis’ vocals drift longingly giving rise to a bitter sweet riposte that veers close to Melys minus the revenge menace. ‘Every little mistake’ skirts teasingly with the same melancholic streak as EBTG’s ‘Missing’ though it’s on ‘Stranded’ that the trio really play to their strengths. Shimmering with a vaguely maddening glam exterior, arcing keyboard sweep magnificently to create an intoxicating primal frenzy that recalls early Curve.

It’s left to ‘Belly’ to provide the albums centrepiece. A brooding affair that’s both eerie and claustrophobic, the use of discordant atmospherics bequeathing it an air of fractured beauty with the unhinged essence of ‘Twin Peaks’ oddness. The club scene regulars among you may be more than floored by the epic sounding ‘Drive’ drowning the album in a euphoric rush and one of the grooviest underpins you’ll hear all year.
- BY MARK BARTON

"It's more like we found each other," Adam Walker said of The Twilight Babies' inception. Walker talked of the electronic-pop group's beginnings as sort of a jam project, as he and his 19.5 Collective mate Mikey Brown were doing a weekly side project at Seven Brothers bar in Hamtramck. One day, their friend Alison Lewis (an established folk singer in Detroit) asked to get up and sing, and before they even knew it, a new band was created. "It was largely improvisational, and it was totally invigorating. We all needed to have less structure and more fun with music." In 19.5 Collective, Walker and Brown join a group of musicians and artists for a very unique multimedia electronic music project/ collective experience. They've been on sabbatical for the past year, but they plan to pick up at the end of the summer, after working on other projects, such as The Twilight Babies. The Twilight Babies' self-released album, put out last year, placed them in the middle of the electronic-based pop movement, while others called it trip-hop, down-tempo, lounge and other assorted names. The group seems to belong playing quietly in the background at a restaurant, or fitting in tight with an electronic music set at a nightclub; but that doesn't meant it's been terribly easy for them to find a scene, per se, that they feel comfortable in. "It's been a tough one for us to figure out. We are somewhere between rock and techno. Is there a scene for that?" Walker asked. Parts of the follow-up to If You Want Me to I Could Write it Down have been recorded in New York, and the entire album should see the light of day sometime late this summer. Walker described their new album as a more focused and consistent piece. "The first CD was more about our music than about capturing a great recording. Now, with our new CD, we spent a lot more time getting good sound."

Deciding to have a female vocalist -- a folk one, at that -- wasn't a natural progression for musicians like Brown and Walker, but Lewis's vocals were inexplicably a perfect fit. "It wasn't like Mikey and I were auditioning for a singer. We were just doing our thing, and along came Alison. But once she started to sing with us, we realized that that was the direction we needed to go in." Lewis also adds acoustic guitar and percussion to Walker's beats, bass, synth and programming, along with Brown's guitars and numerous instruments. The Twilight Babies are insistent on being as much of a live band as they can be. Vocal effects, drum loops and bass lines are previously programmed and triggered live (by Walker) as needed, but Walker noted that The Twilight Babies don't use a laptop or a DAT in their live show, enabling them to have more freedom while they play. "We don't have a computer in control of our music, so we have a lot of freedom to change our compositions while we're playing." That gives The Twilight Babies an advantage over other electronic groups in town - that and those cool headphones they wear. | RDW

Shannon McCarthy does it all for the nookie. Email her at shannon@getrealdetroit.com.
- Shannon McCarthy