19 September 2023

DAUGHTER OF THE VINE – Mystic Valley PKWY (2023, Digital, Self-Released)

RELEASE INFO:

Label: Bandcamp, Self-Released

Format: Digital

Release Date: 5 May 2023

Here’s another wonderful Bandcamp discovery! Daughter of The Vine is a newly formed band based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Daughter of the Vine is the latest mystical musical endeavor, by Boston area singer/guitarist Margaret Garrett (formerly of Mr. Airplane Man), guitarist/singer Gregg Porter (The Concerns), drummer Kurt Davis (formerly of The Konks), singer/keyboardist Abigail Taylor (The Concerns), and bass player Chris Lohring.
Their Bandcamp page describes them as a band that has an ethereal, atmospheric, reverb-laden, transcendent sound.

“Mystic Valley PKWY” is Daughter Of The Vine’s debut album and here’s what the band has to say about it:

“The Law of Fives has determined that this auspicious day, 05/05/23, is deemed most opportune to release the six songs Boston’s psych-pop wonders, Daughter of the Vine (DOV), have been sitting on these many long months.
Recorded in Somerville, Massachusetts’ esteemed Dead Moon Audio on 2” analog tape in November of 2022, these six songs represent DOV’s initial offerings to the listener’s auditory longings. Engineered by Marc Valois, and produced by Daughter of the Vine. Written by Margaret Garrett, and arranged by Daughter of the Vine.
Dig in. Turn on. Tune up! Allow the sonic waves to manifest, objectively, what they wilt, in the A.M., on Radio, or at Transcendentalists hot-spot Walden Pond, if you so desire…And let them wash all over you…”
“Mystic Valley PKWY” contains just 6 tracks with a total duration of 36:15min. The album starts in a warm nice n’ slow way with “Wave”, there’s a cool melody dressed by Margaret’s soft vocals, slowly the track unfolds a beautiful Pop-Psych dream-a-like and kind of sophisticated motive… “Transcendentalists” is a mid-tempo rhythmic song with ethereal female vocals and a dream neo-psych soundscape with a guitar sound coming out straight from the sunny West Coast of late 60s California… The next one which is called “Object Actor” is my highlight, it seems that the band decided to put some Garage Fuzzy guitar chords in the foreground, this is a neo-garage-psych tremendous track, with male vocals with a more kind of recitation than singing, while the band creates a fuzzy upbeat reverberated sonic psychedelic background, yes, that cool! With “Radio” the band returns to their familiar melodic mid-tempo pop-psych environment, filled with Popsike sunshine, female vocals, and a shimmering fuzzy guitar sound that automatically makes my mind make comparisons with the mid-90s Sonic Youth sounding… “Manifest” starts under blasting feedback of guitars, then becomes quite slow with a hypnotic serene Psych background with female vocals that are referring to Kim Gordon (sorry but for some reason I can’t get this observation/comparison out of my mind), the track slowly becomes a reverberated fuzzy piece of modern-aged Psychedelia while the vocals becoming more and more lysergically trippy… The album closes with the balladesque “Am”, a song that emerges a nostalgic feel, an ethereal Popsike tune… “Mystic Valley PKWY” is a lovely and pleasantly good album and I will anxiously be waiting for their next move… TimeLord Michalis