by Ollie Rankine

The usual stir of speculation that surrounds the potential sound of an incoming album has so often been proven to be a futile practice due to a recurring lack of accuracy. For anticipating fans of newly formed super group, Minor Victories, cracking the art of guessing seemed a more attainable task than usual. Consisting of Slowdive’s Rachael Goswel, Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite and Editors’ Justin Lockey who also recruited his brother James, Minor Victories’ self-titled debut is in many ways exactly what you would imagine. To some, the album’s absence of any real surprise may be off-putting, however the merging of sound heard on Minor Victories is as just as epic as you’d expect.

It isn’t often such a well suited blend of influences are able to come together and allow ideas to intertwine. Combining Braithwaite’s experience in writing cinematic soundtracks with Mogwai and Goswel’s dreamy vocal composition, Minor Victories is a delicately massive sound throughout, using varied methods to generate intensity. From the orchestral drive of ‘Out To Sea’ to the blistering shoegaze guitar rips on ‘Cogs’, the only aspect of regular occurrence lies amongst the familiar Mogwai inspired crescendos that tails each track in spectacular fashion. Twinkling electronics and crashing percussion adds to the album’s power and makes Minor Victories the soundtrack to the greatest movie that never existed. (7/10)

Listen to Minor Victories here via Spotify, and tell us what you think below!