Negative Gemini, the solo project of electronic musician Lindsey French, is based in Queens NY these days, but everyone who has been paying attention for a while is sure to remember the project’s roots here in RVA. Therefore, when Negative Gemini comes out with an EP as excellent as their brand new release, Real Virtual Unison, we have to let all the hometown fans know about it.
Negative Gemini, the solo project of electronic musician Lindsey French, is based in Queens NY these days, but everyone who has been paying attention for a while is sure to remember the project’s roots here in RVA. Therefore, when Negative Gemini comes out with an EP as excellent as their brand new release, Real Virtual Unison, we have to let all the hometown fans know about it.
While Negative Gemini got started in the world of the experimental electronic music scene, brushing up against outright noise artists in the early days, Real Virtual Unison makes clear that the project has now graduated into the realm of intelligent, independently-minded electronic pop. The Grimes comparison feels like a bit of a lazy one, especially since it’s been hanging around Negative Gemini since long before it was actually accurate. However, the way the title track kicks off this EP by foregrounding beautiful, melodic vocals overtop of ambient keyboards and hard-hitting programmed beats creates a resemblance that can’t be denied.
However, just so you don’t get too complacent, this impression gets undercut both by “Real Virtual Unison”‘s glitchy final moments and the stranger moments that occur later in the EP, such as “Red Rose”‘s mixture of skittering dance beats and muddy early-Ariel Pink synth murk, or the floating Mariah Carey-isms of the ambient R&B closer, “Hold U.” And of course on “Forget Your Future,” we finally get the title track to Negative Gemini’s 2013 debut full-length, which sounds like an alternate-universe outtake from the Lost Boys soundtrack or something like that. Its 80s-movie urgency will make you feel like you should be running down a beach in slow motion.
Stream Real Virtual Unison in its entirety below:
In addition to being available digitally, Real Virtual Unison has been released on both vinyl and cassette by two different labels from the mid-Atlantic region. Right here in good ol’ RVA, HUMAN (the Dead Fame-owned label that released that band’s 12-inch EP, Vicious Design, last year) released a two-song 7-inch version of Real Virtual Unison that includes the EP’s first two songs. It’s on clear vinyl, and can be ordered for $4 right here. The cassette version, which includes all four songs, has been released in a 150-copy limited edition by Greenville, SC’s Plastic Response Records, and can be purchased for $5 right here. And of course, the EP is available as a name-your-price digital download from Negative Gemini’s Bandcamp page. We haven’t heard about any upcoming RVA shows to support this release, but we’ll definitely keep you posted!
