Rating: 
Hailing from Long Island, New York, Twin Sister is a primarily chillwave, but also pop band who, according to their website, recorded this album in a rented house during the off season in the Hamptons. Filled with shadows of longing for summer days, In Heaven is solid electro-pop album that serves as a transition from summer into those crisp fall days, or rather, if you live here in Austin, from uncomfortably hot to just hot.
In Heaven packs a punch in the beginning portion of their album. The first song is “Daniel,” which starts with some eerily calm xylophonic sounds that are joined by mechanical sounding drums, which gives the song it’s pick up into dream pop from simple electronic noises. Andrea Estella chimes in with her angelic falsetto vocals that coat the song in a buttery warmth that juxtaposes with the electronic hard that the instruments bring. “Stop,” follows, which jumps right into its groove with the male voice of Eric Cardona leading the way. For a track that doesn’t go very far in four minutes, you would think the sound would get overbearing quickly, but it simmers reasonably groovy for its duration; the dual vocals serving as some kind of cooling agent to counteract the spice of the jam.
Highlights later on come in the form of short little songs like, “Gene Ciampi,” whose prevalent guitar parts move the sound closer to the plain pop as opposed to the computer generated sounds. This track is propelled by the natural guitar, which shows the musical variety that this band is able to pull off. It isn’t an album of all one note. Rather, each song fits with another, but takes liberties from the track before it. Another example of this is apparent on the last track, “Eastern Green,” which builds slowly over the course of four minutes. It breaks from this climax at about three minutes, and gives the album a delightfully soft close, devoid of those harsher elements that were at the beginning.
As far as electro-pop/chillwave goes, In Heaven is a good balance of atmosphere and presence. Due to the production on this album, the vocals are the central focus, allowing listeners to grasp onto something memorable. For this reasons, Twin Sister has got something really going for them. You are sure to find one or two, or maybe even more songs that strike your fancy here.
New Zealand’s The Golden Awesome aren’t necessarily what you’d associate with the typical Oceanic fare, but that’s a good thing. They’ll be releasing their album, Autumn, via M’Ladys Records on November 15th, and it’s shaping up to be a darkly tinged bit of poppy noise rock. If you stream the single below, you’ll be met with walls of guitar noise drenched in warm female vocals. Clearly there’s an element of pop one can’t escape in NZ, but there’s more than enough darkness lurking in the songwriting of this group. Stream the jam below for a taste of great things to come.
