Mike Gale
Twin Spirit
(Baboo Records)

A plucky, circa-1920’s piano and effected restricted-speaker vocal inform “Don’t Mind The Weather,” the opener of Mike Gale’s new Twin Spirit. It follows with the slip-sliding out-of-tune piano hits and quick snare drumming of “Betterriver.” Gale, playing all instruments and singing here, seems to be setting up some fun weird soundscapes from the beginning, and although this second tune doesn’t go anyplace, really, it sounds interesting at least.

A plucked guitar with a second handling some nice noodling and kinetic lilting vocal moves “Awake Awake,” while the title track presents an echo piano and again some more effected vocal. Despite the cover-up, it’s a nice tune, though, and maybe the first solid melody of these nine. An interesting single-note squawking lead comes in near the end of the song.

We get a bossa nova beat for “The Lanes Of San Luis” (and again, an effected vocal), in a sweet little tune about time and place. “I’ve Got A Soul For The Mind” is a swirly keyboard/harmony vocal brew, my favorite here. When the beat and bass kick in, we are really into something special.

A slow piano arpeggio, some single plucked notes, and Gale’s vocal (thankfully with no effect this time) play through “Don’t Mind The Devil,” an odd-sounding little ditty, just perfect to end Twin Spirit.

As Gale reports in his press for this, his 9th release, he worked with samples almost exclusively here, and this gave him the freedom he said he doesn’t usually enjoy, being, as he claims, “a fairly poor musician.”

Twin Spirit is not poor at all, though.