Detox Twins Dead Horse Ghost

Sometimes all you need is a drum machine, a synthesiser, and a vocalist who sings in English with a German accent. Sometimes that’s all it takes to make music that will simultaneously get you moving and chill you to the bone. Sometimes that combination comes via Detox Twins, a synth pop two piece releasing their debut album ‘Dead Horse Ghost’ on that there Polytechnic Youth. And this time? It’s very good.

Mark Vorderhaus is on the electronics here, and has found freedom in creating his regimented loops. I know literally nothing about synths, but these ones sound extremely vintage. On first listen my immediate thought was about the soundtracks that were composed for the first wave of video games. They needed to grab your attention and keep it, ensuring you were always motivated to have just one more go. And in that vein, the instrumentation on ‘Dead Horse Ghost’ are plain addictive. The loop on ‘Paradox’ in turns rises and falls, creating a minimal wave from pointilist beeps and bleeps.

Vorderhaus is joined by vocalist Devi von Teufel. Since Kraftwerk, the sound of a German, singing in English over electronics, has come to represent something cold and robotic. Here though von Teufel’s energetic sloganeering (“My life is a paradox, fuck your box”) somewhat humanises the affair. It’s silly and fun, and adds a very welcome splash of colour to the record.