VIDEO REVIEW: Slim Twig’s “Hover on a Sliver”

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Canadian shape-shifter Max Turnbull, the man behind the moniker Slim Twig, could never resign to making just a music video.

Given his pedigreed rearing in all camps of the art world-musical, celluloid, and illustrative-it’s no surprise that his most recent one is more of a scored short film than a formulaic MTV standard. In fact, the opening credits prove this as they read: “Repulsion Revisited-A video set to the music of Slim Twig’s ‘Hover on a Sliver’ from the album A Hound at the Hem.”

The text tells us a lot actually, namely that Turnbull is one lucky fella surrounded by a trio of talented women known as 3 Blondes and a Camera.  As it turns out, these aren’t just any ol’ blondes. Shooter/editor Meg Remy of U.S. Girls is Slim’s wife, director/producer Jennifer Hazel is his mom, and the star of the screen is none other than sister Lulu Hazel Turnbull, who has performed in a handful of U.S. Girls videos as well. All and all it seems like a pretty loving collaboration.

The short itself is less warm and fuzzy than the relationship between its makers would suggest. At first glance we see a projected eyeball squirming on the silk of a nightgown. It glares relentlessly and swooshes to the crescendo of robotic bleating. This opening scene connotes more of the climactic build one finds in horror films, which makes all the more sense when we finally catch sight of Lulu, who is all Hitchock heroine in a frosty coif and peach negligee.

Lulu sketches furiously atop a wall projection, smearing charcoal with the agitation of a stain-scrubbing housewife. These moments of creation are the only in which she seems impassioned and present; she traverses the rest of her life with a far off gaze and tepid neuroticism. It’s the kind of mental diversity one might need while listening to Slim Twig, whose sound ranges from schizophrenic noise to masterly crafted pop.

Enjoy the sweet and sinister video for “Hover on a Sliver” below:

A Hound at the Hem is out now on DFA Records.  Be sure to snatch one of the limited pressings on pink vinyl while they last!

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