Review of the Twink CD & picture-book from Bliss Aquamarine by Kim Harten

Not to be confused with the more well-established Twink (ie John Alder), Mike Langlie, whose project this is, had not heard of him when he came up with the name. This project is based around toy piano, and Mike chose the name as it sounds like the noise made by that instrument. A whole host of other unusual instrumentation appears on here, including gongs, homemade drums, hurdy-gurdy, musical saw, see 'n' say, squeaky toys, etc. Many of the tracks are accompanied by electronic beats.

Mike was previously in electronic and gothic bands, and both of these styles are in evidence here. Some tracks are a sort of experimental, but tuneful, electronica, but there is a dark undercurrent running through some tracks such as Moongirl, Sand and Fire, Sourpuss and The Edge of Darkness, which feature a sinister sounding synth, and Night Sway which includes some eerie sounds created by the musical saw. Shy Violet and The Nearest Star are close to classical territory with cello and flute (on the former) and violin and viola (on the latter) but Twink must be the first artist to create classical style music featuring toy piano!

All the stuff here is melodic, but there are particular tracks where the tunes are more at the forefront than elsewhere. Catnip is especially catchy and sounds like a bizarre cross between children's music and prog rock - excellent stuff! Whoop-De-Doodle also reminds me of children's songs from the 60s or 70s; Hoppity Jones sounds like something from an old cartoon but with added modern synthetic beats; Indian Summer is an atmospheric but melodic track featuring cello and autoharp; Thumbelina has a music box feel about it; Dance of the Fireflies is played on organ, toy piano, wood whistle and various improvised percussion instruments and sounds like 60s easy listening with occasional hints of Middle Eastern and tribal music; Box of Bones has the dark sound that the title suggests, but isn't all doom and gloom as it incorporates elements of Spanish and Middle Eastern music and spacey stuff.

A brilliant album that has lots of different, innovative ideas but also doesn't skimp on the melodies. Comes packaged in a booklet of incredibly twee artwork also by Mike Langlie, which tells the story of a rabbit and his toy piano. Yes, it's twee, but it brought a smile to my face rather than a grimace.