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Listen: Reptaliens ‘VALIS’

Before signing with Captured Tracks, Portland-based Reptaliens weren’t purposely trying to make a band. Their 2017 debut LP, FM-2030, allowed wife and husband duo, Bambi and Cole Browning, to tour with STRFKR, Cults, and of Montreal. After, the group immerse themselves in the studio and ended up creating the sun-dappled compositions that are part of VALIS. Reptaliens has a sound of their own — a chill wave, still complex jazzy lo-fi, easy going concoction of textures and sounds that are unpretentious. Nonetheless the simplicity and spectacle that are the lyrics remains as the unifying factor of how the songs travel together. The lyrics in VALIS are unusually spitted with a minimalist airiness to them that’s inviting, and soothing. You can still sing along, you can still dance to them, all without losing perspective of the intimate atmosphere you are now trapped in, just because each one it’s attached to the next in vibe, context and its formulaic nonchalant presentation. Because of this, the sophomore attempt of the group is easy to get hooked on with. “Sunrise, Sunset” converges Reptaliens feel good aesthetic. Bass and synth driven, bright guitars, the song is warm and relies on the simplicity of each individual composition. Nothing is complicated here, “Venetian Blinds” is an analog summer escapade. Bambi’s vocal approach transpires a suave, but glittery vibe that is contrasted by an upbeat drum beat. “Nothing’s gonna change/ Nothing’s ever gonna change” sings Browning, although it feels like things are changing and this is the ride you must take. Hop on. Then there’s “Shuggie I”, short and sweet, a preface to “Shuggie II” which starts very in your face and brings to play a dramatic and pulsating slithering synth and with the help of a playful bass which is complicit in disarming any pop songwriting that could be detected in it — because it is in itself a pop song. Instead of going straight to any buildups it revokes that tactic and continues with their own 80’s analog dream wave of casual lo-fi melodies. It reminds me of The Strokes’ “Is This It”, which was possibly one of the chillest song to start the album, of the same name, and although The Stroked build up a more rock and roll vibe throughout the record, Reptaliens consolidates that same mentality in a more bright and more experimental, not over analyzed, setting. It’s like a lost Strokes rock and roll album, or Mac Demarco without the memes for that matter.

For example, “Changing” drives away, for a second of the cheerful party presented and goes inwards “And through your hands / The raining of the grains of time /Behind your eyes You’re scrolling through the pages of your mind / To look at why / All the memories they seem so far behind” – seems almost as a reflection of looking at your life from the perspective of being stuck in social media nowadays and through they eye of the hand (our phones screens) we can look at ourselves changing, changed, evolved, rather than within our memories, which are only ours.

“Baby Come Home” almost seems like a depart from the upbeat veil we’ve been getting accustomed too in the first half of the album, until it transforms itself from a synth driven melody into a very simplistic percussive push. This is were the album truly becomes optimistic and it shimmers in the refinement of the few instruments being played. It renovates itself, in the joy that overcomes the band, there are no harsh realities so far only mundane ones. That does changes towards the end of the album where in the more stripped environment in “Heather” where Bambi sings to a friend after her suicide. And this comes out of love, you long the time you didn’t have with this person because you love or loved them. Sometimes you also love the moon, and there’s a song for that too in VALIS. In general, the album is concise and available to anyone who’d like to just have a moment for themselves, in a crowd, with just one other human, and not think about anything too much or at all.

 

VALIS is out via Captured Tracks on 4/26. Follow Reptaliens on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

 

Tracklist

  1. Sunrise, Sunset
  2. Venetian Blinds
  3. Shuggie I
  4. Shuggie II
  5. Baby Come Home
  6. Changing
  7. Echo Park
  8. Give Me Your Love
  9. Song For Moon
  10. Wake Up
  11. Sweet, Innocent You
  12. Heather

 

Tour Dates

03/07 – San Francisco, CA – Rickshaw Stop

03/08 – Los Angeles, CA – Satellite

03/10 – San Diego, CA – SPACE

03/11 – Tucson, AZ – Club Congress

03/12 – El Paso, TX – Lowbrow Palace

03/14 – 03/17 – Austin, TX – SXSW

03/19 – Albuquerque, NM – Sister Bar (Free Show)

03/20 – Denver, CO – Globe Hall

03/21 – Salt Lake City, UT – TBD

03/22 – 03/24 – Boise, ID – Treefort Music Festival

04/05 – Houston, TX – Warehouse Live *

04/06 – Dallas, TX – Canton Hall *

04/07 – Austin, TX – Mohawk *

04/09 – Tempe, AZ – Marquee *

04/10 – San Diego, CA – Observatory *

04/23 – San Francisco – Regency Ballroom *

04/25 – Portland, OR – Wonder Ballroom *

04/26 – Vancouver, BC – Biltmore Cabaret *

04/27 – Seattle, WA – Showbox *

04/29 – Salt Lake City, UT – Complex *

04/30 – Denver, CO – Gothic Theater *

05/02 – Chicago, IL – Concord Music Hall *

05/03 – Detroit, MI – Majestic *

05/04 – Cleveland, OH – Agora Theater *

05/05 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Steel *

05/07 – Worcester, MA – Palladium *

05/08 – Sayreville, NJ – Starland Ballroom *

05/09 – New Haven, CT – College St. Music Hall *

05/10 – Philadelphia, PA – TLA *

05/11 – Norfolk, VA – Norva *

05/12 – Baltimore, MD – Rams Head Live *

* with Turnstile and Turnover



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