Belfast dreamgazers Virgins | New single softer | Blowtorch vinyl album
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Belfast dreamgazers Virgins release new single 'softer' and announce album

Updated: Feb 29

The second single softer from upcoming Virgins' album nothing hurt and everything was beautiful is an instant dance gaze classic

 

Track: softer

Band: Virgins

Released: February 22 2024


The first salvo from the upcoming Virgins album nothing hurt and everything was beautiful was slowly, long and our review at the time noted that "... the single ... finds them adding a poppier melodic sound to the multitude of fuzz and reverb effects that adorned their debut EP Transmit A Little Heaven."


To coincide with the announcement that their debut album will be out on April 11, the band have released the second single from it - softer.


Cover artwork for Virgins single slowly, long

Overall the album has a poppier sheen than the debut EP however softer is a nailed on trip gaze classic reminiscent of closing track soon on my bloody valentine's loveless.


Shoegaze articles usually focus on the "wall of effected of guitar sounds" and indeed that is fully present on softer as are Rebecca Dow's skyscraping vocals. What propels this track though is Brendy McCann's pummelling bass and the shuffle dance beat of James Foy's drums, sat in each other's pocket like the Mani and Reni of Belfast.


What propels this track though is Brendy McCann's pummelling bass and the shuffle dance beat of James Foy's drums like the Mani and Reni of Belfast.

It truly is a collaborative effort with the gazy hand of producer Jonny Woods setting the controls for the heart of phased, blissed out fuzz. As the band say themselves “it’s a shoegaze tour-de-force built around a looping lead riff and the ethereal yearning vocals of Rebecca Dow. Gargantuan walls of dense, beautiful reverbs and dreamy fuzz, transport the listener to a world of abstract beauty and bliss.”


The video was shot in Belfast in December 2023 and shot, directed and edited by Ebony Alexander with assistance from Michael Smyth and Ciara Topping.




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