This article was featured in RVAMag #25: Summer 2016. You can read all of issue #25 here or pick it up at local shops around RVA right now.
This article was featured in RVAMag #25: Summer 2016. You can read all of issue #25 here or pick it up at local shops around RVA right now.
Captive
A Lost Dream; The Dreamer Lost
A prog and post rock love affair that downplays the stylistic clashes and marries the spiritual adventure each genre embodies. Captive have quietly released one of Richmond’s most ambitious works of 2016, one full of vivid lyricism and astonishing musicianship that constantly strives to reach the next level and somehow continues to succeed. (DN)
Clair Morgan
New Lions & The Not-Good Night
(Egghunt Records)
Like most math rock, 2013’s No Notes is built on the relationship between notes and rhythms. At its core, Clair Morgan’s newest release is also built on relationships, but with less focus on rhythmic structure and much more on personal connection. With the addition of six talented personalities into the band, the music here soars on the exploration of harmony between each and leads to many profound musical statements, some so conflicting that it’s mind-blowing when they pull them off in transcendent ways. (DN)
Close Talker
Temper Mistake, Exclusion Erase
Temper Mistake, Exclusion Erase almost didn’t see the light of day. Much like LP2 from Sunny Day Real Estate, the RVA pop punk quartet recorded their best work to date and called it quits without plans for release. But even that disappointment cannot detract from the group’s monumental step forward, transcending genre trappings and raising the bar from their 2013 debut, So Am I. (CZ)
Cough
Still They Pray (
(Relapse Record)
Still They Pray by Cough” alt=”” />
With their first album in six years, Cough has given us their best-sounding recording yet. The majority of songs here deliver huge doom and sludge riffs, with guitar tones that sound caked in dried mud, alternately wretched and despairing vocals reverberating overtop. Some dark folk and more chilled-out stoner rock passages towards the end of the album introduce interesting new dynamics for Cough. (CE)
Doll Baby
Polliwog
Armed with perhaps the most powerful voice in town and a sound that is timelessly effective, local trio Doll Baby burst onto the scene here with a despondent sound that demands listen after listen until ever last inflection is fully memorized. Across three wildly different styles and approaches, the band remains resounding throughout the record with vocalist Julie Storey skillfully guiding the way to the next tumultuous moment. (DN)
gemtone
Mourning Flame
The photo making up this album’s cover appears at first to have been shot underwater, but upon closer inspection, it seems to have been shot above ground in low light. Both interpretations work well: the listener is first submerged under waves of gloomy synth, then brought to a dark, sparsely-populated dance party, before being dragged to a dungeon. Descend. (CE)
Hannah Goad
Kinds
A former instrumentalist of Portland-originated Lili and the Dirty Moccasins, Hannah Goad strips her album down to basics — her voice and her guitar. It’s no wonder that Kinds deals in themes of isolation, and the difference between loneliness and independence, between following blindly and carving out an identity, however incomplete. (SS)
My Darling Fury
Aches
Years of setbacks led to My Darling Fury’s rebirth as an entity far removed from what Richmond first came to know and love, but an entity that just might be more honest and sincere than anything before it. Existing outside the confines of a typical band structure, the now-trio have cultivated a sound that hinges on the relation between inflection and intervention, with somber thoughts clearing the way for imposing melodies that make for the most interesting songs the band has yet to create. (DN)
