After the eponymous debut, Minor Victories have prepared an interpretative surprise with their new release. In case you didn’t know, this is a supergroup created by members of three famous bands: Slowdive, Mogwai and Editors. As it usually happens with supergroups, they take major characteristic of the style of all the native bands and produce an eclectic combination. With Minor Victories, we were dealing with post-punk, post-rock and shoegaze. Did that change now?
Orchestral Variations is a reflection on their debut, or to be precise, it is a different perspective of their first album. The perspective I am talking about is purely instrumental. Meaning, sophomore release brings instrumental interpretations of all the songs from self-titled record. This is why we got paired songs, with instrumental interpretation being the better part of each pair.
Justin Lockey said in a statement that he does not know a lot about the theory of music, but that he works on a song until he gets what his ears enjoy the most. So, these orchestral variations are not strictly backed up by music theory, rather new perception of the old tunes and attempt to show them in their raw form. The vocal of Rachel Goswell was the strongest asset of the debut, which makes the decision to express themselves only with instrumental even more bold. The result is, actually, quite good.
The album sound mellifluous, balanced and harmonious. It falls somewhere in between post-rock and ambient music. In fact, it exists in the middle space between guitars and subtle electronic. Nothing is extreme on this record except the raw quality of each song. Basic matrix of the original songs has evolved into a version that sound more convincing than the original. The perfect example for it is Cogs. Walking through the forest or walking by the beach reflects the atmosphere of this number.
Give Up The Ghost delivers brighter tones thanks to the piano, while Scattered Ashes reminds us that we are all going to die one day. The biggest hit from the previous release, Folk Arp, got even more intense sound here, completely stripped from any production and reduced to minimalism. The whole record is simple and minimalistic, because all variations are conceptualized as detox from the production enrichment. The core is what’s important.
Orchestral Variations is an awesome album for relaxation since its ambient and minimalistic sound brings calmness.
