VIRGINIA WING - Rhonda

After the breakout success of their debut "Measures Of Joy", OndaRock's album of the month back in October 2014, Virginia Wing (Alice Merida Richards on vocals, synths and organ, Samuel Pillay on synths, guitar, noise and bass, and Sebastian Truskolaski on drums and percussion) decided to take all the time they needed to work properly on their second full-length, already slated for autumn 2016. In that sense, the EP "Rhonda" acts as a bridge between the two records - the debut and the one still to come - from the Camberwell, South London trio.

Just three tracks, then, but plenty going on nonetheless. Starting with the title track "Rhonda" itself (featuring Koichi Yamanoha of Grimm Grimm), a song that builds gradually from a long intro steeped in rarefied, shamanic atmospheres into an alt-pop piece where Alice Merida Richards's ethereal vocalizations graft themselves onto dancefloor beats, to disorienting and effective result - in fact, the word trance wouldn't be out of place either. "Sisterly Love" ramps up the experimental quotient, and that might be a key clue as to what awaits us on the second LP. Hints of new wave and electronic chimes pack out a track that touches on the darker side of Virginia Wing's pop.

The synthetic fragments that open "Daughter of the Mind", on the other hand, thin out into uncharted ambient spaces, crossed only by a touch of psychedelia.

If two clues out of three make a case, Virginia Wing's second album will be marked by an even darker sound and a more avant-garde edge. Either way, we'll find out soon enough.

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05/06/2016