Gazelle Twin
Electrowerkz, London
02/09/2011
 
As The Fly enters the chilly, cave-like Electrowerkz building in Islington we are greeted by mysterious waving women shrouded in white with blue LEDs on their fingertips. This is probably the least surreal moment of the evening, as the strange and elusive Gazelle Twin (Brighton’s Elizabeth Walling) enraptures with a visually and aurally spellbinding set. Walling glides onto the eerily blue and red-lit stage clad in a shapeless full-length peasant dress with a Safari-style white headdress.
 
Half of her band are dressed in chainmail Saxon soldier-garb, and the others are invisible in black – save for tiny white headlamps. The aesthetic contrast between the ancient and the modern reflects the appeal of Gazelle Twin’s music: her vocal evokes the beauty of a medieval chamber-chorus and when echoed and juxtaposed against creepy synths and electric drumbeats is distorted into something uniquely timeless. This is deeply cinematic music – The Fly spots a couple of people with their eyes closed, conjuring their own mental pictures to fit with the epic electronic score. They might look a bit silly, but somehow it makes perfect sense.
 
Walling’s clear musical predecessors are the famously eclectic Kate Bush, more recently Björk and Fever Ray, with the latter perhaps also influencing the idiosyncratic costume choices. But Gazelle Twin is a fresh and exciting talent all on her own, and whilst her zany getup might be a bit too extreme for some, for many it’s a welcome contrast to all the flesh-baring contemporary pop starlets. However, whilst Walling’s eccentric image defiantly draws attention away from her physicality, there are moments where the visual theatrics threaten to distract from what is simply a superb performance.
 
That said, the Gazelle Twin live experience is not to be missed. And like all the most enduring singers, listening to her music on record is a revelation all of its own, as she segues through emotional states from joy through to despair and back again.
 
Laura Vevers