Minor Victories Announce Instrumental Version of Self-Titled Debut LP, Release Video for First Track

It wasn’t enough to build a supergroup out of members of Slowdive, Mogwai and Editors, and then to release a compelling first LP in June. No—a mere four months later, Minor Victories are back, announcing a new album of instrumental interpretations of that self-titled debut, coming soon on Nov. 25.

Minor Victories also released the first single from the project and a music video to go with it: a moving, gentle version of “Cogs” that contrasts the cluttered art-rock feel of the original. The visuals are a stylistic continuation of the first “Cogs” video: they’re both made of black-and-white shots of a man moving in slo-mo through sparse settings, and both feature a sudden gun reveal.

Guitarist Justin Lockey said in a statement:

When we were putting together the Minor Victories album, a lot of the music came about through string arrangements, motifs, melodies, countermelodies and other such noodlings I was messing about with. This record kind of takes it back to that initial point, and re-imagines the whole record from that standpoint—the bare bones, the hint at a vocal melody, not relying on any backbeat—but stripping the songs back to the base elements and then piece-by-piece making an entirely new record. It takes the songs and elements around them and the phrases into a new place, mostly born out of hindsight and I guess a curiosity to fuck around with it all long enough until it sounded right to my ear. From all that an entirely new record was formed. It’s not a remix album, or b-sides … it’s just another way at looking/hearing things.

Watch “Cogs” above, check out the tracklist for Orchestral Variations below, and stay tuned for the album itself, coming Nov. 25 to North America on 180-gram double vinyl and getting its digital wide release on Jan. 27, 2017.

Orchestral Variations Track List:

1. Cogs
2. Breaking My Light
3. The Thief
4. Give Up The Ghost
5. Scattered Ashes
6. Folk Arp
7. For You Always
8. A Hundred Ropes
9. Higher Hopes
10. Out To Sea