There certainly must be SOMETHING in Manchester’s air or maybe in their water supply systems – how else can we explain the city’s internationally renowned musical heritage and the highest concentration of cool bands per square meter in the world, except for maybe Seattle? Should we blame genetics? Manchester is home to many talented siblings (the infamous Gallagher brothers first spring to mind), but what truly got my attention is how many identical twin pairs live and make music here! From Jaz and Andy of The Doves, to Millie and Hope Katana, EC TWINS (Marc and Allister Blackham) to Harriette and Charlotte Robinson, Manchester seems to be a twins hot spot. I have good news to those who were on the lookout for new music from Two Of The Same – the twin sisters are delivering another brilliant track this week and you can’t miss it.
Single cover picture comes from band’s family archive
Official bio: Two Of The Same are an indie pop/indie rock, female fronted band based in Manchester. They have a Wolf Alice/Dead Pony sound to their music with hints of the Pretty Reckless and Wunderhorse inspired tunes.
Released on the 21st of March, “Occupation” is the fourth single from the band following “Evergreen”, “Dancing on the Landline” and “London”. So far, the girls received several plays from the main radio stations, including BBC Introducing and Radio X with John Kennedy comparing their music to Fleetwood Mac, alvvays and Wolf Alice. That’s a rare and very unusual praise from a legendary DJ that has heard millions of bands in his career. The duo are doing well on the live front as well, selling out and headlining shows at Manchester’s prime grassroot venues and supporting international artists such as Girl Scout on their UK tour. Colour me truly impressed.
“Occupation” stands at 4 minutes and 20 seconds and it’s also the longest track they released. I can’t help but notice that the band’s sound has significantly changed since their last single. I don’t know if that’s some sort of an experiment to widen their musical paths or a permanent change, but I really like it. While “Dancing on the Landline” was significantly influenced by the European new millennium pop and “London” had a distinctive 1990’s American power pop vibe to it – “Occupation” sounds like a proper Manchester track through and through and I mean this as a sincere compliment.
What defines the unique Manchester sound? In short – it’s a blend of pop, dance, electronica, rock, indie rock, cold wave, post punk, new wave, new romantic and goth/proto goth rock. The foundations were built by the Fall, Joy Division and The Smiths in the early 80’s, and then the scene morphed into electronica and “Madchester” subculture with its acid/ecstasy filled clubbing at the Hacienda led by The Happy Mondays, Inspiral Carpets and The Stone Roses. There is another offshoot of the scene that incorporates shoegaze, psychedelia and alternative rock in the form of James, The Verve and early Oasis. So where does it all put the two young ladies from Two of The Same, you may ask? My answer would be – right in the middle. Let me explain why.
Harriette and Charlotte Robinson with their live band picture by Gracie Hall
“Occupation”, despite the duo’s radio friendliness, pop harmonies and mid tempo beat, is their first genuine rock track. It’s faster, more aggressive than previous tracks. There is a noticeable coldness of new wave in the passages, guitars are fuzzy and scratchy – the beginning of the song reminds me of the intro to “Supersonic” by Oasis. Bass is pulsing and heavy, drumming is light but prominent. Lead guitar solo makes me think of Johnny Marr, and it continues throughout the song, in a typical The Smiths fashion.
Harriette and Charlotte take turns to sing, but it is barely noticeable. Their voices go so well together you’d think the entire song was sung by just a single person. It’s absolutely beautiful, melodious and smooth, this is one of the reasons why I fell in love with their music. The girls are not only sweet and nice though – they can sing with a real kick and grungy raspiness if they have to, but I think they are much more comfortable in their natural middle range. Whatever they do, they deliver it perfectly. I have praised their songwriting abilities before but “Occupation” is, hand on heart, their best track to date – it’s like they finally found their sound and their footing. Everything in this song just feels right, all pieces are falling in place and the end result is simply brilliant.
The girls seem to share my sentiment. “Occupation is one of those songs that we wrote in a band practice within the hour and it just sounded exactly how we all wanted it to. We performed it 2 days later at YES Basement (in Manchester) receiving great feedback” – say the sisters. “The audience loved the song and wanted to know when it would be released, so we did exactly that. As a band we were struggling slightly with the sound that we wanted to get across to our audience as we wanted to achieve a more heavy fuller sound so this song was our first step in the right direction. As much as we loved our old single releases, we didn’t feel as though we were being true to our sound. We always felt more alive on stage after playing a heavier set for a gig and felt our lyrics and song ideas would just thrive for a more powerful rock-esque set”.
Just like with their previous “London”, the band decided to use a personal picture for the single cover.
“The photo on the cover is of our grandparents kissing each other outside of their home seeming very happy and infatuated with one another!” they said when I asked about it. “We thought it fit the song perfectly and we loved the realness of it so we ran with it. We worked really hard on this single and feel like it captures our new sound as a band, and one we want to follow in our future . We hope people love the song as much as we do”.
“Occupation” is a brilliant track. Had it been released a decade ago, it would get the girls a major record contract and a national tour. Had it been released 20 years ago, Two Of The Same would be headlining Reading and Leeds and would be Melody Maker’s darlings, compared to the leading female fronted bands of the Britpop era: Elastica and Lush. Today, where working class artists are completely invisible and ignored by the industry, the band must work ten times harder than ever to break through, even locally. Lack of recognition, lack of grants or opportunities for young British artists is a national tragedy. Without talented youngsters like Two of The Same, British music is quickly becoming gentrified, boring and stale.
We need artists like Harriette and Charlotte Robinson, we need songs like “Occupation”on national airwaves. We need them to be able to tour, play, experiment, and evolve – they have so much potential.
New music is still here, it just needs to be recognized and promoted. I have a favour to ask of anybody who reads my words: support new artists that come from your social circles. If you have a young lad or a lass in your family that dreams about becoming a musician, don’t discourage them. Put a good word, listen to their music, tell your friends about their dreams. Ask your boozer if they do an open mic night, or live music. Ask for their email and pass them to the kids. They need to have their families and friends behind them.
It takes a village to raise the band, it’s not just a silly phrase. It is simply the truth.
Please follow Two of The Same online:
https://www.instagram.com/two.ofthesame/
https://www.tiktok.com/@two.of.the.same
https://open.spotify.com/artist/5AH820JlmasyqE4zDqmZJw
Rita Dabrowicz
Indieterria 
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