Slim Twig

Toronto-based weirdo Slim Twig positions himself outside the margins with Vernacular Violence, a five-song EP that's a consummate challenge, any way you approach it. The disc offers a strange array of sounds that alternate between modernized bluegrass, bizarre electronic workouts and a variety of other sounds that are difficult to categorize. It's all very interesting, but it's also unlistenable far more often than not. Slim rambles and jives and hoots and hollers, and it's a task to make a modicum of sense from within this mess. If the tracks were more engaging, it might be worth making the effort. Unfortunately, each of these five tracks seems to meander rather aimlessly and by the time "Gate Hearing!" wraps things up, the listener is left confused, unsatisfied and most importantly, disengaged. This just isn't a record that warrants repeat listens.