Levrikon
Like if an alien with no appendages caught radio broadcasts of Elvis and tried to make an album that sounded just like it, but didn't know how.
Favorite track: Clerical Collar.
A Hound at the Hem, a narrative album by Slim Twig.
with Louis Percival & others...
& String Arrangements by Owen Pallett.
Originally released in 2012 on Calico Corp. Reissued in 2014 by DFA Records.
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 under the radar releases deep, the Toronto native lays claim to a tremendously original work with his orchestrally-inflected, 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 concept album exploring the troubling and the taboo and themes like the transformative power of lust, AHATH can be interpreted as an echo-like response to Serge Gainsbourg and Jean Claude Vannier’s Histoire De Melody Nelson. Most of all, AHATH poses the question; where next for Slim Twig, this promising and original auteur?
credits
released October 28, 2014
A Hound At The Hem was written & produced by Slim Twig at The Gas Station.
Additional dubbing & mixing done at 388, and at home by Slim Twig. September 2010 – November 2011. Except Shroud By The Sheetful mixed by Carl Didur.
All Songs by Slim Twig, 2012.
Except Shroud By The Sheetful, written by Carl Didur & Slim Twig.
Arrangement and mixing consultation by Louis Percival.
Mastered by Sarah Register at the Lodge, NYC.
Slim Twig Band on this record:
Louis Percival – Drums & Bass
Carl Didur – Harpsichord, Piano, Organ, Synth
Tim Westberg – Vocals, Vocal arrangement on Widow Were You Younger, Hover on A Sliver
Slim Twig – Vocals, Piano, Organ, Synth, Guitar, Harpsichord, Mellotron, Drums
&
Meg Remy – Vocals on Clerical Collar & Widow Were You Younger
Colin Fisher – Saxophone on All This Wanting, Hover On A Sliver & Maintain The Charade
Tilman Lewis – Cello on Shroud By The Sheetful
String arrangements by Owen Pallet, performed by the St. Kitts String Quartet:
supported by 4 fans who also own “A Hound at the Hem”
Perhaps the best album you've never heard of. Indie pop with mostly female vocals that reminds me of Broadcast and Young Marble Giants, and great guitar riffs that remind me of XTC and The Police. Lots of catchy songs that are just quirky enough to remain interesting. Art Fin
This Calgary group makes goth-y post-punk attired in the brightly colorful arrangements of bleep-boop synthesized psychedelia. Bandcamp New & Notable Feb 3, 2024
Welsh art-rock group HMS Morris make music full of plot twists; explosive, colorful rhythms can turn into shadowy introspection on a dime. Bandcamp New & Notable Dec 22, 2020
supported by 4 fans who also own “A Hound at the Hem”
Artiste que j'ai aperçu au FME 2021. J'ai manqué son show parce que je faisais du bénévolat dans d'autres spectacles. J'ai profité d'une chanson entre mes blocs. Elle est magique! J'aurais bien aimé voir en intégralité... Lavinie Cloutier