Twin TM – Let’s Get The Party On

Twin TM Keeper Of The Threshold
Label – Aspect Music
Country – UK
Released – May 2013
http://www.discogs.com/Twin-TM-Keeper-Of-The-Threshold/release/4615001

It took me a while to discover that Thomas Melchior is not actually that fashionable, but then even I wasn’t won over by him immediately. In fact many of his records, now cherished members of my collection, I dismissed at first, only later appreciating their genius. That’s what his music is all about: it’s not simply enigmatic, but complex and intellectual, at first difficult to digest until you’ve heard it three or four times. Only then all the subtleties and secrets become glaringly obvious. That’s precisely how his latest release behaves, joining old pals Tim Hutton and Mamam on the revived Aspect Music imprint that recently gave us Melchior’s mysterious “Dysfunctional EP”.
Whereas “Dysfunctional” displayed Melchior’s romantic hand, this is certainly more punishing. Drawing from a palate of frantic percussion, acidic squelches and choppy piano keys spread across three tracks, it’s Melchior as we know him: deeply narcotic and painstakingly designed. The title track is a typically shrewd minimal house affair, raw and stripped-back, those familiar hi-hats anxiously rattling away behind a bellowing baseline. There’s an array of other things going on, including trademark vocal debris, but in short it’s a challenging piece destined to test the flexibility of many a soundsytem.
‘Let’s Get The Party On’ recycles the keys that were so prominent in Melchior’s early album ‘The Meaning’, released on Playhouse. It does feel slightly retro, and the hissing bubble of acid adds to the vintage feel. ‘The Fall of The House of Shadows’ will again probably sound familiar as it was one of the standout tracks from Zip’s much talked about fabric mix. The looped Wurlitzer sample is divine as it neatly collides with the surging, clattering blend of kicks and claps before being withdrawn, leaving nothing but the pumping skeletal beat behind. It’s a quick but devastating dose of adrenaline-soaked dancefloor wizardry.
This is quintessentially Melchior’s modus operandi in one tidy package. It won’t instantly grip you in the way you would expect top-shelf releases to do so, but given a little patience you start getting to know it, and then you’re hooked. Few producers stay as loyal to such a personal formula like Melchior does, but how he keeps rewriting the rules of what can be done with such limited means is what makes his music so magical. With a little help from old friends here, it’s just another sublime piece of individualism.