Minor Victories

Minor Victories (Orchestral Variations) (Mushroom)

Minor Victories, the collaborative venture by Mogwai’s Stuart Brathwaite, Slowdrive’s Rachel Goswell and The Editors’ Justin Lockley and his brother, James, have scored a major victory on the instrumental version of their selftitled album. Given the background of each musician, that doesn’t surprise but what does is the elegance and almost Steve Reichian rhythmic simplicity of Give Up The Ghost and the deliberate piano melodies of tracks such as Scattered Ashes, High Hopes and Cogs, where gentle orchestrations drift in and out or build in tension to create an invisible soundtrack for the cinema of imagination. – Mike Alexander