Either everything matters, or nothing matters. And what is worth defending is worth ‘dying’ for. This is the grim wisdom behind TwoLips’ debut record, the aptly titled “DIE ON EVERY HILL.”
The music industry has a predictable habit of routinely funnelling Black voices into the neat boxes of R&B or pop adjacent. With “DIE ON EVERY HILL,” TwoLips takes an axe to those expectations. Fronting an aggressive, cathartic sound that weaponises a vanguardist eclecticism through unconventional sounds galore such as electro-goth, industrial textures, and punk, TwoLips uses her debut to stage a confrontation without genre expectations. Created alongside her longtime collaborator and producer Lightfoot, the record is a mission statement and a glimpse into the exhilarating plasticity and depths of her sound and vision.
The record boasts quite a broad palette of sounds and moods. The dissonant intro “RESISTANCE” is a dystopian cyberpunk appetiser for the incoming onslaught of sound. “CHASE THE RABBIT” is the high-octane chaser that aptly evokes the club scene in The Matrix as an on-point thematic expansion, and here it’s impossible not to fall in love with the intense and sultry vocals. Later on, “BLACK NATIVE,” “CALIFORNIA SERENADE,” and “CONTRABAND” take the record into unexpected directions, with hip hop, funk, and electro pop elements that highlight the versatility of TwoLips without compromising the gritty, dangerous edge of her music.
It’s hard not to notice the huge influence that club goth/rave and industrial cultures had on this record, and the way that TwoLips plays with these very influences is extremely creative and transformative, managing to evoke the genres at their most niche while also remaining profoundly enthralling, entertaining, and innovative. Truly the work of a genius, and one of the best records I’ve heard so far this year.
Under her moniker, Kianah LongChase slams the sun-baked, heavy distortion of desert metal into the kinetic, driving pulse of rap and Afrobeat. It is an aggressive, intentional collision of sounds that, despite how harsh they are, neatly integrates into something catchy. As a multi-racial Black and Indigenous woman splitting time between New Mexico and Downtown Los Angeles, her perspective is the foundation for music that dances effortlessly between global rhythms and fringe aggression.
What grounds this chaos is Kianah LongChase’s background in visual art, dance, and even circus performance. That interdisciplinary nature of her art turns her live sets into a magnetic, trance-like rage that she has already brought to stages from SXSW to Berlin. By commanding control over every medium she touches, TwoLips proves that the most compelling art happens when you apply rigorous physicality to irreverent sonic lawlessness.
FIND TWOLIPS via @twolipsmusic
