Virginia Wing - Measures Of Joy

Measures of Joy is at once a joyful collection of drifting, psych-pop and something altogether more mysterious; a psychedelic patchwork of sounds that drips gradually into your subconscious with each listen. Virginia Wing has created a strange, ethereal and deeply atmospheric debut album and it’s a trip you’ll find yourself wanting to take again and again.  

Pools of droning synths and snippets of strange, radiophonic sounds pour themselves over the band's hypnotic rhythm section. Head--nodding basslines and a huge drum sound, which recall some of Electrelane’s finest rhythmic mantras, sit alongside whirlpools of ambient electronica and distant haunting voices.  

This record's loose, free flowing nature seems to emphasise the importance of the album as a complete experience. While many of the songs sound impressive enough in isolation, it’s only when you listen to Measures of Joy as a whole that you really begin to appreciate its magic.

The most obvious reference point would have to be Trish Keenan’s much-missed Broadcast. While there are certainly euphoric moments here, the album recalls the slightly unsettling tone Broadcast produced with the likes of Broadcast and The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age, and their soundtrack to the wonderful Berberian Sound Studio.

60s-tinged psych-shenanigans give way to dark, brooding drones, while Alice Merida Richard’s vocals are smooth, distant and somehow detached. It all adds to the unique and hard-to-pin-point atmosphere the Camberwell outfit has created. One thing’s for sure, there’s something special going on here. Menacing, magical and almost certainly out of its mind, Measures of Joy is an album to lose days inside.