VIR

VIR’s Shadow of a Mountain blends elements of post-punk and shoegaze to create a glacial, dark and elegant record. Sam Sloane’s mercurial and echo-laden guitar drifts through the record while Natasha Arens and Jeff Paul’s rhythm section build and swell around the escalating tension in Sloane’s vocals. With the band now based in the SF bay area but with roots in Christchurch, New Zealand, the album contends with a longing for home and a sense of loss despite the idealistic urge for challenge and experience abroad. Drawn to the contradictions and contrasts in the U.S the album contends with a futile attempt and defiant struggle to challenge an insurmountable mountain, as a result, VIR produce an album evocative of the American landscape. VIR’s music is unashamedly melodic, honest and affecting. The songs are built on an engaging dynamic of fragility, melancholy, ambiance and intensity. Live, the band is uninhibited in communicating songs of love and loss and the fervor with which they play elevates the music to evocative peaks. The band will be touring Shadow of a Mountain throughout the United States throughout the year and will come home to New Zealand in December 2008 for a national tour.