Twin Sister – Kimmi In A Rice Field

An indisputable highlight of Twin Sister’s debut LP – In Heaven, ‘Kimmi in a Rice Field’ exists in a sonic space all of its own, as if placed in the centre of a Venn diagram bordered by shoegaze, chillwave and trip-hop.
The song blossoms to life from humble beginnings as processed drums and gently pulsating synths form a calm, spacey atmosphere. Vocalist Andrea Estella’s voice floats perfectly atop the nuanced music below, placing just the right amount of urgency (or lack thereof) to fit the song’s nimbly warping highs and lows.

It’s a textbook exercise in dream pop; the ethereal soundscapes created by the band evoking everyone from the Cocteau Twins to Slowdive. Following on from cyclical maneuvering between hushed vocal refrains and wonderfully mellow instrumental breaks; the track eventually sees itself out on a coda of synth arpeggios that add a sense of summary and conclusion to the track. It’s as if the band wanted to end in dramatic shoegaze style but chose to eschew the cacophonous guitar work.

Estella begins ‘Kimmi in a Rice Field’ simply saying, “At first the sky was empty.” By the end of the track’s four minutes, it certainly isn’t. Twin Sister have turned the atmosphere into their canvas, filling it with dulcet tones and imbuing it with their own distinctive loveliness.

By Alex Cull