Label: Loma Vista
Released: 10th March 2023
So often music can be a throwaway commodity. Cut up into two and a bit minute chunks, primed for the algorithm, designed to capture the maximum number of streams. But that modern condition only serves as a stark contrast to when an act actually pushes beyond the capsule collection.
On their latest project, ‘The Valley of Vision’, Manchester Orchestra prove they’re a much deeper concern than any of that. Backed with an accompanying virtual reality film, it’s an immersive world that pushes through in the music just as much as the material that surrounds it.
Opener ‘Capital Karma’ rolls in like the morning fog, textured and tangible, setting an atmosphere that only builds. Switching up on the expected, the band cast aside their usual instruments and guitar-driven past to produce a work that ascends beyond what came before, each organic, raspy synth-bed scratching a specific itch.
Few bands are brave enough to try something this ambitious, even fewer have the talent to pull it off. But then Manchester Orchestra were never one of the pack. If this is their vision, it’s one everyone needs to see.
