After an excruciating tease of singles being drip-fed between 2022 and 2024, Twins Sport are now set to release what will no doubt be one of the year’s strongest debuts. Combining the best of shoegaze, garage and alternative, ‘Acquiescence’ will continue to solidify them as a band to be paying a lot of attention to.
Across the album’s 8 tracks, their music traverses the polished and lush sounds of shoegaze, the raw and gritty drive of 80s & 90s alternative, and the cheerful accessibility of dream pop, all mixed and melded together in an amalgamation of beautiful noise. These songs are well crafted, thoughtfully executed, and all hit hard. You can hear hints of Galaxie 500, Luna and Slowdive as well as key influences DIIV, The Peep Tempel and Eddie Current Suppression Ring. It’s wonderfully dreamy, yet grounded and real.
Twins Sport is the project of Melbourne-based musician Josh Dawes and friends. It was initially formed in 2020, just prior to the halcyon days of pandemic lockdowns, back when friends couldn’t even see each other, much less write and record music together. So instead Josh took the opportunity to embark on a new project, writing and demoing tracks that would become the basis for Twins Sport.
After years of playing bass in bands, it was a process of re-education; learning his own sound, voice and writing style. “In my early 20s I played in local shoegaze band Flyying Colours and missed playing dreamy shoegaze and wanted to put my own spin on it,” Josh notes. “I’ve always liked things a little rough around the edges and punkier in design.”
It is a self-professed solo journey, but one that has enlisted the aid of many close friends and musical associates. When the time was right, the songs were eventually tracked with Gemma O’Connor (Flyying Colours) and Michael Badger (producer, engineer, drums). Josh notes that while it remains his brainchild, Gemma was instrumental in making the project come to life; her vocals, arrangements, and song writing really elevating the project when it needed. Now through the awkward COVID years, with music completed, Twins Sport has expanded into a full live band which has just seen it through its recent month-long residency at Shotkickers in Thornbury.
“The collection of songs takes snap shots from breakdowns in relationships, watching the news of open burials in NYC, having time to reminisce on youth, family and project my story so far.” – Josh Dawes, Twins Sport
The album was recorded at Jala Records and was produced & mixed by Michael Badger. It was mastered by Leon Zervos at 301 Studios.
With thanks to Wild Gift PR
