Having recently moved to North Carolina to study poetry, Caroline White found herself alone in a new city with more than enough time on her hands to craft the introspective pop songs that comprise her latest record as Infinity Crush, Virtual Heaven. “I found myself fantasizing and romanticizing, which is easy to do when you’re by yourself all the time,” she’s said of the experience. “Every interaction would feel sort of high stakes in a way that was kind of silly and not rational, but I’d also sort of let myself enjoy it.”
Although she may have felt alone in the moment, the resulting album of gauzy pop songs fits snuggly among the introverted bedroom sounds of her label Joy Void, which boasts a roster mostly comprised of different projects from Sam Ray (American Pleasure Club, Julia Brown) and Mathew Lee Cothran (Coma Cinema, Elvis Depressedly), as well as Horse Jumper of Love’s debut and a release from Spencer Radcliffe’s Blithe Field project. Even when collaborating with Ray on a handful of these projects, each release expresses a comfort in loneliness unique to the label’s catalog, the minimalist guitar and hushed vocals of Virtual Heaven being no exception.
“I’m lucky to share a roster comprised entirely of artists that I really respect and regularly listen to, which I know is incredibly rare,” White says of the label’s modest discography. Going into a bit more detail on a few of these titles below, her familiarity with each record feels as intimate as the music she makes.
Virtual Heaven is out now. You can order it here, and stream it here, and for a full list of Joy Void’s catalog, visit their site here.
I want to start exploring the catalogue with one of my all-time favorite records, My First Love Mends My Final Days. I am always moved by the themes of redemption and by the idea of understanding oneself through the lens of your family. It’s a stark and reflective collection of songs, and to me it perfectly encapsulates the feeling of isolation. In a song like “Little More Time,” Mat is, as always, able to convey something universal without once feeling cliché—in this case, the longing to see a loved one, the painful consequences of time. Even in its crushing moments, this album has so much personality and wit and even a slight sense of humor. The combination of despair and humor is part of what makes it so moving to me, from start to finish.
Days Drift By was one of my favorite records from last year. I have followed Spencer Radcliffe’s music for so long, for the longer part of a decade at this point. He inspires me as a musician because of how much variance there is in his body of work. I love the way this album experiments with live performance instruments, digital instruments, and sampling, and how the three have a chaotic and beautiful relationship. This album is definitely one that feels like its own universe—everything is so cohesive, including the artwork and its relationship to the music. And each song feels like a microcosm of that, the way they build into themselves and stand alone. I love the ride that the song “Love Knot” takes me on. It feels like it builds and then completely changes directions.
Last but not least, I often come back to Flood Network (and Katie’s whole discography). Her signature deeply distorted electronic pop is so identifiable and so unequivocally her sound. The transitions on this album are genius—it’s truly an “album” and not a collection of songs, where the order matters and feels so deliberate. The moments of harshness aren’t purely harsh, because they’re beautiful, too. They summon the softer moments. The digitized pitch shifter is layered in “All” in this beautiful, almost uncanny way, so that the moments of just Katie’s voice feel so raw and intimate. I think it’s the perfect opener. I love listening to this album and trying to figure out the sounds. Katie Dey is a brilliant musician.
