When a duo of tenacious musical chemistry come together to create music, adhering to a set of influences that drive both parties forward musically, the results can be a mish-mash of styles and sounds that has no rhyme or reason, or they can be as tastefully compelling and calculated as Millennium Resorts’ ‘Happiness’, their latest release from as upcoming album.
Based in Austin, Texas, Millennium Resorts is Scott Raulie and Jonathan Richerson, and their sound is like a blend of Grizzly Bear’s challenging melodies and harmonies and M83’s grand, electronic soundscapes. Together, the two musicians have come together under an umbrella of similar musical tastes, and a desire to kickstart shoegaze into the stratosphere. And while ‘Happiness’ ended up somewhere far from shoegaze, it still manages to weave a wonderous atmosphere that is, in their words, monolithic, and in ours, immersive and captivating. Lyrical and melodic, ‘Happiness’ has an electronic base that never stops moving, shifting from one sonic scene to the other, always supported by a rich undercurrent of throbbing synthwave.
Stream the 7+ minute full album version on Spotify or BandCamp.
The mind-bending ‘Happiness’ is a release that showcases a duo who is very comfortable with the sound they are presenting and are fully confident of their abilities to immerse their listeners in the sonic worlds they create. Perhaps a bit of a challenge for those looking for a spot of shoegaze’s numbing walls of sound, Millennium Resorts are here to present something different and they manage to create something that easily stands out.