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UNSEEN 009CD
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On their second album, Broken Devotion, Portland-based duo Mint Julep instill their lush and gauzy, synth-centric brand of pop music with a raw and powerful emotionalism. The follow-up to their 2011 debut Save Your Season (VG 001CD) (praised as "melodically sophisticated and dreamy " by the NME), Broken Devotion came to life over the course of four years, with Mint Julep reaching an unprecedented level of lyrical precision while easing into more lavishly textured, intricately layered arrangements. Throughout Broken Devotion, multi-instrumentalist and producer Keith Kenniff (also known for his work as ambient indie-electronic act Helios) and his wife Hollie Kenniff (Mint Julep's vocalist and lyricist) explore the many bright and dark dimensions of love, a tension that's masterfully embodied on the album's title-track. Urgent yet ethereal, "Broken Devotion" blends driving rhythms and hazy guitar tones as Hollie's hypnotic vocal work achingly captures the unraveling of a romance. Lead single "White Hot Heart," meanwhile, emerges as an airy and shimmering, synth-laced number that's timeless in melody. Also featuring a gorgeously sprawling cover of When in Rome's late-'80s new wave hit "The Promise," Broken Devotion finds Mint Julep shifting from the frenetic energy of beat-driven tracks like "Incinerate" to the downtempo drama of songs like "Slow Spiral" with an uncommonly delicate grace.
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VILLAGE 001CD
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Mint Julep, the husband and wife team of Keith and Hollie Kenniff present their second album, Save Your Season. The album is the husband and wife team's follow-up to the ultra-rare, limited release Songs About Snow. This release is hallmarked by Hollie's seductive, dreamy vocals and soaring choruses, all of it etched with Keith's vivid, glinting keyboards and towering guitars. Opening track "Chasing The Wind Catching The Shadows" offers listeners an enticing taster of the sweeping harmonies, delicate vocals and luminous melodies that appear throughout Save Your Season. The LP then sweeps you into the hazy romanticism of "Aviary" and the soft propulsion of single "Days Gone By." Keith Kenniff is a critically-acclaimed musician best known as the brains behind dulcet ambient/electronic practitioners Helios and the fingers on the ivories of post-classical piano minimalists Goldmund (the latter's music once described by no less an authority than Ryuichi Sakamoto as "...so, so, so beautiful..."). A succession of albums under those aliases has made Kenniff the darling of discerning critics and his music has also been widely used in film, television and advertising, not least on the soundtrack to Harmony Korine's 2007 comedy-drama Mister Lonely and the trailer for the 2009 Academy Award-nominated Revolutionary Road, directed by Sam Mendes. For fans of M83, Beach House, Maps, Ulrich Schnauss, Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine, I Break Horses and Mazzy Star.
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