RL/VL “Chagrin” – Resident Advisor
Excerpt: “Hamill, AKA RL/VL, is thankfully too young to understand the sadie-masie crawl supposedly required of minimalists, and whenever his small, melodic textures threaten to disappear they always return calmly, in themes and droves and memorable parts, from two minute intros to extended ponderings. With its somewhat cynical title, it’s a surprise that Chagrin is so sweet, evoking erotic sighs and moans heard off in the distance rather than one-bedroom alienation in a city hostel or something… The underlying hook throughout the whole is that you can feel the spare alienation melting off every track, which become warmer and warmer as the thing wisps along at a floe pace… And it never stops evoking, which is how you could tell there was youth in it without even knowing Hamill’s only 18. The imagination’s too wild and unrefined to sleep.”
