Twins!

Every now and then, you learn about an album that seems to defy all possible explanations. Bob Ostertag and Otomo Yoshihide are both explorers of the fringe, the experimental, and the surprising, but Twins! may be the most unusual album in either of their discographies. The concept, in brief, is that three of the tracks—Chris Cutler, Yagi Michiyo, and Herb Robertson provide one each—are “parents.” From these, Bob and Otomo take turns producing a pair of “twins,” manipulating them with samples and cuts and whatever means they want. Even with the knowledge that the parent tracks are the source material for these demented creations, it seems practically impossible to reverse engineer the steps. It’s a wild project from conception to execution, and you can imagine the both of them at their respective mixing desks with a devious grin like those silly little guys on the cover.