Review || Virginia Wing - Ecstatic Arrow
We’ve
quietly loved Virginia Wing for a few years now and just as their work was
hitting a comfortable and not overly predictable groove they have changed
direction again on Ecstatic Arrow.
We’re not
entirely sure if the title references The Arrow of Time principle (if you’re
not a physicist go check that out) but it certainly feels so, given the
previous album’s title, Constant Forward Motion, essentially the same
principle. Whilst that album was drenched in production in the most gorgeous of
ways it was obvious you couldn’t continue that route. Ecstatic Arrow then is a
minimalist take on the themes of that album, also bringing in some of the avant-garde experimentalism of collaboration album with Xam Duo, Tomorrow’s Gift.
This
brings a nice balance of harmony and clarity that shifts the proverbial arrow
forward nicely. Highlights include the synth funk imbued Glorious Idea and
the minimalist-electro ode to science, Relativity. The latter’s chorus really spoke
to the mind of this writer particularly and the segue into the brilliantly
titled For Every Window There’s A Curtain, with it’s electro-jazz styling's is
well thought out.
Looking
beyond the tracks themselves though the album as a whole is very cohesive,
mixing post-millennial self-doubt, forward thinking synth-woven musings on life
passing and concepts of movement. It’s almost a scientific experiment in the
form of an album and that’s certainly not a bad thing. Perhaps the starkest
song of them all is the resigned yet forward focussed Eight Hours Don’t Make A
Day, detailing the dissatisfaction of a daily grind and, in another album
theme, time and the feeling of it’s passing. This could be the group’s most
artistically satisfying album yet and we’d certainly recommend checking it out.
Ecstatic Arrow is out now on FIRE Records.
#SRCZ