Collide – Two Headed Monster

The core of Collide, kaRIN and Statik, have been creating and releasing music for over a decade, mostly on their own Noiseplus music label. Two Headed Monster is their fourth full-length release and finds them collaborating with Dean Garcia (formerly of Curve) on bass for one song and Danny Carey of Tool on drums for four songs. Additional members of Collide’s live line-up, Rogerio Silva, Kai Kurosawa, Scott Landes, and Chaz Pease, also contribute distorted guitar, bass, and drums. This is Collide’s most lush, warm, and accomplished album to date, with a atmospheric mix of rough and raw guitar sounds and flowing beats, electronics, and vocals.

KaRIN’s vocals are always a tantalizing highlight and that’s no different on opener “Tongue Tied & Twisted” where her sinuous and breathy voice twines around a winding, siren-like guitar line and drum beat. The song exerts a mid-tempo pull with seductive verses of gritty, distorted guitars and wordless sighing accents and chorus parts with dark blasts of sledgehammer rock guitar riffs and cymbal smash contrasting with kaRIN’s sultry vocals as she bittersweetly draws out the lyrics “Couldn’t tell you / how I feel / couldn’t tell you / what was real.”

“Chaotic” sweeps in at a fast pace with a dashed out beat, low-register bass line, and driving guitars, as kaRIN sing-talks in a slinky tone against a James Bond theme song-like reverberating guitar. Dean Garcia is featured on bass and the song and kaRIN’s vocal delivery are reminiscent of Dean’s former band Curve. Electronic beeps, laser zips, and submarine blips fill out the dense sound as kaRIN’s soft-edged vocals take on breathy pauses in the chorus, with her ghostly vocal refrain remaining suspended in the air for a moment before it’s pushed aside by the darting electronics and propulsive drum beat and guitars.

“Pure Bliss” is vocally true to its title, with kaRIN’s voice blossoming on the line “You bring me pure bliss…”, radiant and wrapping luxuriously around the measured-pace, somber Cranes-like piano notes, fleeting electronics, and slow blues guitar licks that unfold in jags. The chorus brings the noise, with loops of intensely churning guitar, cymbal smash, and kaRIN’s velvety vocals filtered through a megaphone.

“Silently Creeping” comes on like a torch number, complete with Twin Peaks-like deeply reverberating guitar strokes, orchestral strings, and a spacey, synth organ sound. The chorus is a dark weave of flame-like, wavering guitar lines, drum beat, cymbal shimmer, and kaRIN’s mellifluous vocals that alternate between a lighter, honeyed tone and an aching, low-register inflection.

“Shifting” bends mournful guitar notes and orchestral strings and horns against a scratchy beat, evoking an old-time feel to the song, along with kaRIN’s warm, but longing vocals. The closer “Utopia” ends it in a dream state, with delicate, reverberating guitar lines, a lush bed of strings, kaRIN’s airy, echoed vocals, and burnished guitar distortion that glazes over the blissful languor.