Visuals, Psychic Twin

Andrew Fox has spent nearly a decade in New York City sketching psychic spaces and emotions like a cinematographer in conversation with himself, reckoning with demons, seeking understanding. His debut four-song EP as VISUALS arrives October 27th on Nicolas Jaar's Other People imprint.
Fox formed a three-piece band called VISUALS in 2012, choosing the name as an oblique reference to a debilitating ocular disorder he suffered as a child. His previous releases were a series of cryptic self-released 7" singles written in collaboration with drummer Marshall Ryan—but Fox felt further development was still needed. He went into hibernation, experimenting and playing solo electronics sets in small NY venues, and writing new songs.
VISUALS' EP is a collaborative relay race between like minds. After recording and producing much of the arrangements himself, Fox handed the songs off to Darkside guitarist Dave Harrington for a final round of mixing and edits. His partner Nicolas Jaar finished the job, lending the record a distinctive psychedelic thump that fits Fox's songs hand-in-glove. Over the course of its all-too-brief runtime, VISUALS' EP pits the soulful against the inhuman, evoking everything from Broadcast's eerie, hermetic pop
experimentation to Prince's minimalist sex funk. Songs like "Solve for X" and "Remote Control" are bottom-heavy love songs to an uncertain future, propelling Fox's cracked, weather-beaten drawl through a gauntlet of rubber-band basslines, bone-dry drum machines and deft sample manipulation.

While much of VISUALS' EP is a clear product of the dog days of the early 21st century, closing track "Fifteen" is something else altogether, a transmission from the heart of Old Weird America, all acoustic guitars, telephonic vocals and unsteady drums. In one heart-stopping moment, the EP's chilly synthesizers and sequencers finally give way to Andrew Fox, alone in his music, creaking out the line "I know, you know / it's natural" like he's being chased by the devil himself. After cutting away all but the essentials, we're left with VISUALS' EP, a four-song collection of rusty electronic soul with a beating heart.


Erin Fein, Brett Sanderson, and Jonny Sommer are the Psychedelic-Elektro-Pop Trio Psychic Twin from Urbana, Illinois.