Haneke Twins is back! We at Divide and Conquer reviewed their eponymous debut EP, and it’s great to see “our” artists continuing to write and record new music.
Haneke Twins was originally formed by CERN scientists Paschalis Vichoudis (vocals) and Stefanos Leontsinis (guitar). For their follow-up seven-track “mini-LP” Astronaut, they’ve expanded their lineup, adding Giannis Koukovinis (guitar), Athanasios Kyritsis (bass) and Michael Schenk (drums). This is part of their development as artists. As they tell us, they were “originally foreseen to be a one-off recording project,” but decided to step it up with a full band and some live shows. On their debut album, they set various poems (or parts thereof) to music, including those from Stathis Antoniou and Robert Frost. They also included a cover tune. In a further artistic development, for Astronaut, all music and lyrics were written by Leontsinis and Vichoudis. Astronaut is all-original! The lyrics are a little dark with an industrial or sci-fi twist. Haneke Twins, as they say, “deal with subjects such as psychological quests, concerns about modern life as well as other social and political issues.” I’ll have to take their word for it: Vichoudis’ voice sounds terrific, but his strong baritone is mixed underneath the in-your-face guitars, so it was sometimes hard to pick out all the lyrics. “Location Underground” had a very cool turn of phrase: “Wake up and welcome to Earth / Location randomly assigned / Algorithms define my options / Of where I work, live, and die.” Well, yeah, though I never thought about it quite that way! The music falls into the “post-punk revival” genre, as if Joy Division were crossed with parts of Fall Out Boy and dressed in a flannel shirt. The guitars and bass have a nice growl to them with well-conceived and well-executed interlocking parts. The seven tracks are tightly arranged, and have had the fat trimmed, with every song clocking in right around three minutes’ running length. Each of the tracks has its own highlights; I particularly liked “In My Head,” especially when they hit those low open-Es (the payoff is worth it). “Stuck In A Loop” was a top track too with its controlled chaos reinforcing the tortured lyrics. Any of the seven is a good listen, really--they’re all strong! Astronaut is a great follow-up for Haneke Twins, and a terrific step forward for their development as artists. Give this a spin, and maybe they’ll be convinced to permanently change their lab coats for stage clothes.
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