This Summer, Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite, Slowdive’s Rachel Goswell, Editors’ Justin Lockey and his brother James came together to release their debut album as Minor Victories. Today, the band announces their utterly stunning instrumental interpretation of the self-titled record, entitled Orchestral Variations. Today, you can Listen to the first track, an alternate take on “Cogs.”

Justin Lockey on the making of Orchestral Variations:

I don’t really know that much about music in terms of theory, notes, scales etc. I generally just fuck about with things until it sounds right to my ear… So I guess to call this album ‘Orchestral Variations,’ it would have to be in the loosest ever sense of the term.

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.

Produced and engineered by Justin, and featuring the likes of Mark Kozelek and James Graham from The Twilight Sad, Minor Victories (in its original form) was released in June via Fat Possum Records/Play It Again Sam. What began as Justin’s desire to create an extreme noise EP topped off by a delicate female vocals, Minor Victories became a 10-track LP, masterfully crafted by four band members who had somehow never even all been in the same room together until after the album was completed.

Tracklisting
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

UK/EU Tour Dates
10/24 – Minalo, IT – Santeria Social Club
10/25 – Vienna, AT – Ottakringer Brewery
10/26 – Lausanne, CH – Les Docks
10/27 – Brussels, BE – Botanique
10/29 – Port-Jérôme-Sur-Seine, FR – Pitchfork Music Festival: Paris
10/30 – Düsseldorf, DE – Zakk
10/31 – Berlin, DE – SO36
11/01 – Dresden, DE – Beatpol
11/02 – Munich, DE – Feierwerk
11/04 – Reykjavik, IS – Iceland Airwaves
11/05 – Den Haag, Netherlands – Crossing Border Festival
11/06 – Hamburg, DE – Markthalle
11/07 – Copenhagen, DK – Pumpehuset
12/02 – Glasgow, UK – The SSE Hydro *
12/03 – Leeds, UK – First Direct Arena *
12/05 – Manchester, UK – Manchester Arena *
12/06 – Nottingham, UK – Motorpoint Arena *
12/08 – Birmingham, UK – Barclaycard Arena *
10/10 – Dublin, IE – 3Arena *
12/11 – Liverpool, UK – The Magnet
12/12 – Newport, UK – Newport Centre *
12/13 – Oxford, UK – O2 Academy 2 Oxford
12/14 – Brighton, UK – Brighton Centre *
12/15 – London, UK – Wembly Arena *
* supporting Placebo