I make it a point to try new music frequently. It is important to me to not get stuck in my ways with only comforting classics from my teenage years. Though many albums come and go, every once in a while an album will come along that becomes an immediate obsession. My current obsession is the Gazelle Twin album, Unflesh. I heard about it in a youtube video about albums with disturbing content and the background given in the video along with the cover art caught my attention. Gazelle Twin is the pseudonym of English songwriter and producer Elizabeth Bernholz, who created Unflesh, her second album, in her home. The album was released in 2014.



Upon my first listen, I knew I was into something special. The opening title track starts with an ominous droning bass tone which breaks into a ghastly, heavily filtered moan, followed by the drop of the song's mechanical, crunchy beat. The paranoid tone of the album is set by the lyric "It's coming at me!" repeated over and over.

The second track, Guts, takes a dark synth-pop turn with more sound effects and a beat that could've been found in an old Whitney Houston track. Exorcise features a pulsing synth track that is heavily reminiscent of Pink Floyd's On The Run. There are more great lyrical images on this track, I especially like the delivery of the words "concrete tower." Skipping ahead to what I would call the album's most compelling track, Anti Body has a beat that could be called a deconstruction of Metallica's One and it certainly makes me want to bang my head. The almost whispered rhythmic spoken word delivery (with English accent intact) of lyrics that are bleak to say the least, will take you to a very dark place.


Towards the tail end of the album is another one of my favorite tracks, Belly of the Beast. It begins with the mundane ambiance a grocery checkout beeping with items being scanned. Then the track gives you just enough time to forget about those beeps until they are used in the beat drop of the first chorus. So good.

I can't stop listening to this album. I'm looking forward to checking out the other two Gazelle Twin albums, but I'm still absorbing this one. The breathy, spoken word delivery and hypnotic beats pair perfectly for the majority of the album. The slower songs are on the short side and never wear out their welcome. Fans of moody electronic music should check this album out. It can be streamed on Spotify or purchased here.

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