Slim Twig is the name of a man, not of a band - though he has performed in many a group, some under his own moniker. Boasting a catalogue several underthe- radar releases deep, the Toronto native lays claim to a tremendously original work with his orchestrallyinflected, art rock album, A Hound At The Hem. Self-produced in the fall, 2010, Hound is a suite of narrative songs thematically inspired by Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita. DFA is privileged to reissue this album in advance of the release of Twig’s newest works. Upon completing AHATH in 2010, Twig struggled to find wide release for it due to its uncompromising textural onslaught and disregard for genre. This course of events set the stage for the composition and release of Sof’ Sike, a somewhat more conventional set of pop songs released on Paper Bag Records, in 2012. The title of that work refers to Twig’s own conception of Hound as the hard-psych flipside to his work of that period. Recorded on Toronto Island in collaboration with fellow Torontonian, Louis Percival, the album features string arrangements by Owen Pallett, and other collaborators including Meg Remy (U.S. Girls), Carl Didur (Zacht Automaat), and the St. Kitts Quartet. As a conceptalbum exploring the troubling and the taboo and themes like the transformative power of lust, AHATH can be interpreted as an echolike response to Serge Gainsbourg and JeanClaude Vannier’s Histoire De Melody Nelson. Most of all, AHATH poses the question; where next for Slim Twig, this promising and original auteur? Heavy Splendour Clerical Collar Widow Were You Younger Shroud By The Sheetful All This Wanting Hover On A Sliver Maintain The Charade Blonde Ascending (Come Into The Clatter)
