Otherness

The clever counterpart to the Twinlights EP was its near-exact artistic opposite; while Twinlights showcased stripped-down, acoustic piano-led songs, Otherness was a series of four radical remixes by an outside performer, the first and only time the Cocteaus would let anyone do that. Said performer, Mark Clifford, had come to the Twins' attention leading the group Seefeel, leading to a strong friendship with Guthrie and thus the remix opportunity, with Clifford very much bringing his crisp, haunting electronic style to the proceedings. Two songs from the not yet released Milk and Kisses, "Violaine" and "Seekers Who Are Lovers," were treated here, along with two older songs, Victorialand's "Feet-Like Fins" and Heaven or Las Vegas' "Cherry Coloured Funk." "Feet-Like Fins" understandably gets the strongest makeover, its lush acoustic guitars turned into high-pitched drones and loops over a slow electronic beat as snippets of Fraser float around the mix. The two Milk and Kisses tracks aren't that much more recognizable either. "Seekers Who Are Lovers" keeps distorted shreds of the guitar wash, sampled and given different pitches, over echoing rhythms, Fraser's vocals completely rearranged. "Violaine" preserves her main lyric, interestingly enough, but otherwise the music again favors deep bass and slow pace, with slight hints of guitar and keyboards surfacing in the background. "Cherry Coloured Funk" ends things wonderfully, a sample and loop of the song's guitar and layered vocal passages from Fraser re-imagining the Twins at their most blissful and beautiful.