By The Do, 2011

Both Ways Open Jaws is self-produced by the duo, with multi-instrumentalist Dan Levy taking turns on sax, piano, harpsichord and trumpet (among numerous other instruments). The album unsettles: it's pop, it's indie, it's arty, but it's so much more. It reinvents itself at every turn.

Technically accomplished and full of rich orchestration and electronic flourishes, the new record somehow still manages to keep a lightness of touch and an instant pop appeal, no doubt thanks to Olivia Merilahti's bewitching vocals and song-writing skills. She veers from the primal, invoking the spectres of Fever Ray and Bjork with the percussion led Slippery Slope, replete with tribal chanting, and `Too Insistent' with its tirelessly catchy propulsive melody, to the childlike; her sweet vocals offsetting the unsettling imagery on opener Dust It Off, and the nursery rhyme rhythm of Bohemian Dances a little reminiscent of Joanna Newsom and CocoRosie. Olivia says, "I'm constantly after the ideal song, I believe in a song's healing powers." "We're looking for the diversity and richness of sound, surprises in the details, orchestral colours," says Dan.

"It certainly comes from our culture of classical music, our love of contemporary music, and of musicians like Charlie Mingus. The types of music that follow no map."

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