Snowman Fight is here in full, at long last. The wider world has been subsisting off of the crumbs of occasional social media snippets and the odd live show, but that wait is over.
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| Twinklecore: Episode 1 on Bandcamp |
Twinklecore: Episode 1, aside from implying a follow-up, is exactly what it says it is: Twinkly. The absurdly bright, twangy guitar tones invoke genre greats like Algernon Cadwallader or Midwest Pen Pals, and are good enough to deserve a place in the work's title. However, next to those genre greats, the vocals are surprisingly... good? For reference, twinkle emo is a genre that wears raw, off-key vocal inflections as a badge of honor. Instead of being totally organic, the standard off-kilter vocal lines appear to be more integrated into the written melodies on this record, and it works really well. It's a more organized approach, and it leaves the vocals feeling more withdrawn, but no less breathless than the alternative.
"The Bug Event" professes life-or-death love and adoration for DIY punk show lifestyle, bemoaning late nights in gross basements and commenting at the same time that this structure provides a social network blooming with support for artists and creators. Then, in Origami Angel-esque screamo-adjacent fashion, a distorted instrumental breakdown crashes the song to a close. It's a surprise there's no heavy screams over this section, but it's still easily to imagine getting kicked in the face at a show to the back half of this song.
"Sheetz Aint Shit Wawa For Life", while very agreeable, is also the most overdriven, least major-key guitar work on the record. It also touts some of the most simple, effective drums in the batch. There's something to be said for keeping it simple to support guitars that characteristically overplay. Not just in the sense that it creates a dichotomy between the two, but in giving the cascading, technical guitars room to breathe. A lot of the supportive basslines across Twinklecore: Episode 1 do the same thing.
"Cocoa Fire", the closer, is the song that I heard via an instagram recording of a live show that instantly made me a fan of Snowman Fight. This song hurts, and that's always the goal of good emo music - to find an opening in the listener's emotional castle and blow its walls wide open. If that's the case, "Cocoa Fire" is a trojan horse - the first section is a mislead, coming out of the gate with bright guitars and loud vocals, but dropping off into a cutting refrain around the two minute mark. "I don't need to scared, I'm not alone anymore." Snowman Fight leaves that wistful, panging, cautious optimism, long after the crashing cymbals and guitar feedback have left listeners' ears.
Yo this album was awesome!
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