The Winks & Tights

When two bands work together well, why not release a dual CD? Drip Audio did just that, bringing together The Winks and TIGHTS – two very interesting musical experiences.

The Winks are breathy, spoken word Bach on a few hits of acid. You can easily trip out to their use of cello, woodwinds, and mandolin. Powerful percussive moments mix with airiness in equal parts. Tyr Jami’s voice is so squeaky wonderful. She sounds like a mouse creeping through each song. Their contribution to the release (first seven tracks) can be haunting if you don’t watch yourself – the music makes for some pretty scary stuff in the middle of the night when you wake up to go to the bathroom and forgot to hit the Sleep button on your CD player.

The first track on TIGHTS’ contribution (‘Deadly Enemies/Feathered Friends’) starts off with honking of horns – wake up, it’s time to get freaked out. The music feels metallic, almost spacey, and definitely a little auditory abrasive. But really good! Great use of noise, samples, digital processing, and ambient resonance. The music must be what a baby robot might talk like: sharp sonic expressions while it learns.

TIGHTS’ ‘B Major’ almost makes you want to chuck, it’s kind of dizzying; ‘House The Sun’ by The Wink’s is just similar, like an Arabic recording played backwards. These two groups together really mix the weird with the infectious. You want to hear what the next song sounds like because you sometimes can’t believe you liked the last one so much.