catalogue

VIRGINIA WING

FORWARD CONSTANT MOTION (FIRE RECORDS)

VIRGINIA WING - FORWARD CONSTANT MOTION 104121
format:
1 LPD
release:
18.11.2016
label:
FIRE RECORDS
item ID:
104121
barcode:
0809236147516
Their reconfiguration from a trio to a two-piece sees them blossoming from the previously cold, kosmische palette found on their debut Measures of Joy into the wider-reaching sound of Forward Constant Motion.

" More than anything, we wanted this record to expand in every direction: the poppy parts are poppier, the weird parts are weirder, hopefully".

Grapefruit emerges from a cacophony of crackles and hums and drifts in and out of focus, even while clocking in at a lean sub-four minutes.

Elsewhere, Miserable World is far more rigid; with Richards' vocals tied to its jutting, jerking movements.

Standout-track, Hammer A Nail abruptly taking off from powerful stomp to high-def escapism.

Underpinning much of the record, though, is a sense of the dreamlike or otherworld, the album split up by short, drifting passages where structures melt away.

It's a key thematic point which, in-part, arose when Pillay developed Labyrinthitis (a disorder of the inner ear which results in vertigo and disorientation).

"The symptoms would often come in spells, so I liked the idea of loosely replicating that feeling with the music.

That's why some of the songs stop abruptly or sound as if they are falling apart. I wanted to reflect the fallibility of the human body." As for Richards, the themes of Measures of Joy - the claustrophobia of being stuck in one place figuratively and literally - remain in the background, however Forward Constant Motion offers a mirror in the approaching idea in the freedom and fear of being displaced.

On songs like Lily of Youth or Miserable World, such movement is pointed and direct. Elsewhere, as on the wistful murmur of Move On (the group's warped interpretation of late night Lovers Rock tunes) or Sonia and Claudette's early AM stupor it's more uncertain.

Then there are tracks, like the glimmering finale Future Body, that focus on the strength of women and female friendship.

As Richards explains, the group are acutely aware of misguided perceptions when operating within the paradigm of a male-female electronic duo.

It's a record made out of a union that is vital for the on-going evolution of the group.

Reduced to their very nucleus, they now sound at their most natural, comfortably processing the boundless ideas that they previously eschewed and shaping them to work, pushing the pair ever further forward.
 
  • Tracklisting
  • 1.1. LILY OF YOUTH
  • 1.2. ESP OFFLINE
  • 1.3. MECCA COLA
  • 1.4. GRAPEFRUIT
  • 1.5. MISERABLE WORLD
  • 1.6. ANDALUCIA
  • 1.7. SONIA & CLAUDETTE
  • 1.8. LOCAL LOOP
  • 1.9. BE CONTAINED
  • 1.10. PERMABOSS
  • 1.11. HAMMER A NAIL
  • 1.12. MOVE ON
  • 1.13. BATON
  • 1.14. FUTURE BODY