Vanishing Twin - Ookii Gekkou (2021)

On The Age of Immunology, Vanishing Twin showcased the boundarylessness of their music by weaving together the native tongues and instruments of each member's homeland. On Ookii Gekkou, they make a shared dreamland. Written and recorded in lockdown during the COVID-19 global pandemic, the band's third album reflects the instinct to hole up and create, as well as the undeniable strangeness, of that time. Fittingly for an album with a title that means "big moonlight" in Japanese, Ookii Gekkou expresses pandemic-era seclusion and illusions with slinky nocturnal grooves like the opening track, a twinkling incantation that sounds like it's descended from Martin Denny, or the bewitching, funky "Phase One Million." Though it's sometimes a more subdued album than either The Age of Immunology or Choose Your Own Adventure, it's just as magical. There's a sense of transformation in Ookii Gekkou's swirling mix of funk, jazz, orchestral pop, psychedelia, and electronics that ensures Vanishing Twin's version of pandemic life doesn't sound like anyone else's. "In Cucina," for example, finds the whimsy in domesticity, turning time in the kitchen into communal creativity that sounds like a mystical rite filled with drums and chanting. Ookii Gekkou also delivers the fascinating, headphones-friendly sound design that Vanishing Twin fans expect, whether it's the buzzing low saxophone that underpins the coda of "Wider Than Itself" or the way "Zuum"'s electronics, strings, and clarinet evoke the communication of nocturnal creatures. The ambiences that decorated the group's previous work take center stage on "The Organism," a collage of marimbas, harpsichord, and a purring cat that uses the band's love of vintage sci-fi music to convey the weirdness of merely existing. The band saves some of the album's prime examples of their interstellar pop for last, and the mind-bending Motorik of "Tub Erupt" and the sweet android love song "Light Vessel" will scratch the itch of Broadcast and Stereolab fans craving music that's just as transporting and inventive as the work of those bands was. Perfect listening for solitude, Ookii Gekkou discovers strange beauty within the mundane -- and once again demonstrates that Vanishing Twin's imagination is boundless, even when the world only extends as far as the walls around them.