The Nova Twins first hit the alt rock scene in 2016, garnering quick recognition then sudden fame with their 2022 album, Supernova, featuring anthemic bangers like “Antagonist” and “Cleopatra.” Childhood friends Georgia South (guitar and vocals) and Amy Love (bass) unique approach to genre, a bent and dented combination of rock, punk, electro-clash, industrial noise, and hip hop, makes their music universally appealing. That is, if you like your music loud. Kerrang! labeled the two-piece the Band of the Year; they have been nominated for several Brit Awards, and that’s only a small flavor of the band’s long list of official recognitions. On Nova Twin’s latest album Parasites & Butterflies, Love and South step out from their own shadow and further into the light.
A reverberating guitar taking the shape of a silhouette marches the album into its debut song “Glory.” The chorus chants a drawn out “glory, hallelujah,” welcoming us into this new nova star that separates them from the worlds of their previous albums. A doorbell and a knock supplicate for an entrance until The Nova twins signature bass lines burst the door open. “Piranha,” released as a single with subtle socio-political nods (a soft reference to a border and words like soldier and rebel) uses tools from the industrial music booklet. Sometimes this can smear the nuance of Nova Twin’s lyrics, blending them into more of genre cliches than nuanced writing. Love’s impact on the bass, however, lends each song an earned nuance when the commitment to industrial noise threatens to overpower.
“I’m not afraid of monsters, but I’m afraid of myself,” the repeated call in “Monsters,” flows well into the unapologetically more feminine homage: “Soprano.” Women typically sing soprano, so when they South harmonizes, “don’t make us get soprano,” she threatens to use her power, one that hits harder than a tenor. She makes a refreshingly far from didactic feminist charge: “I can be sexy, cute, devilish, intelligent / Mood swings, I can be passive aggressive.” Her vocal range dips into a low growl, then climbs up to that titular soprano in a thrilling showcase of her breadth of voice. “Soprano” hits no matter what. It carries along a can of pop, ready to climb the music charts with that pocketed dose of carbonation.
The Nova Twin’s commitment to their extracurriculars make their music seem like a side project. They started a fashion label, Bad Stitches, take active roles in supporting causes like The Black Curriculum, and founded Voices For The Unheard, an initiative that elevates alternative artists from underrepresented backgrounds, all of which creates the Nova Twins universe. Even in their music videos their creativity clearly stretches well beyond the screen. Flashes of self-made outfits, several in each clip, establish the Nova Twins style: ripped and buckled visions of black and red. The pair seemed destined to achieve this level of notoriety, the way they so effortlessly hone their honest punk rock egos—though they are championed only by their pure creativity.
Humbly, The Nova Twins waited until their third album to name a song after themselves: “N.O.V.A.” Throughout the album, the band had some help from their friends Ilan Rubin from Nine Inch Nails and George MacDonald from Kid Kapichi, eliciting leading men in punk rock to uplift Nova Twin’s pioneering noise. “Drip,” which chants and teases with a bit with rap vocals mixed in with rock instrumentals reminiscent of “Young” off Little Simz’s latest album Lotus. The nightmarish qualities of “Sandman” feed the melancholic pleasure of Iranian artist Mahsa Vahda’s sample in “Hummingbird,” a nod to Amy Love’s Iranian heritage. The last four songs on the album “Parallel Universe,” “Hide & Seek,” “Hurricane,” and “Black Roses” bring a gothic tinge to a near vocal echo to early 2000s pop.
Any DJ could play Parasites & Butterflies in sequential order to a great result of pleasing the crowd. Each song is more danceable than the last. As a send off note on the album, South says, “I think we will find healing through other people.” Parasites & Butterflies reaches and tickles anyone who listens, culling us to the dance floor, vibrating at Nova Twins’ booted feet.
Buy or stream Parasites & Butterflies here.
Photo curtesy of the band.
