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Austin musical duo Millennium Resorts release single “Happiness” ahead of January concept album

By Kath Galasso on December 12, 2023

Austin, Texas-based Musical Duo Millennium Resorts inhabit a vast space all their own on atmosphere-heavy new single “Happiness”, out October 27th on digital platforms. “Happiness” is the first release from the band’s upcoming concept album “In The Key of David”, due for release on January 26th.

Millennium Resorts successfully blur the lines between complimentary subgenres, creating a mind-bending sonic mosaic. Fans of Tame Impala‘s hypno-grooves, Pink Floyd‘s psychedelic prog rock, M83‘s immersive electronic dream pop or My Bloody Valentine‘s brooding shoegaze will want to check out this cinematic release.

Monolithic in it’s presence and rich with atmosphere, Millennium Resorts constantly build tension and mystique in their music while allowing the listener to choose their own meaning.

“There are several musical themes that intertwine and call back to each other developing through the album all the way up to the end. It really is the old idiom that the sum is greater than the parts. As far as the themes and the “story” of “The Key of David,” I know it’s a copout, but that’s up to the listener. No doubt we will get comparisons to cyberpunk and mentions of “dystopian themes,” which I think is fair, even so this goes way beyond computers and robots, but again, we’ll let the listener interpret.”

Most importantly, this is an album intended as a complete listening experience.

“One of the most important aspects of “In The Key of David” is that it is meant to be listened to from front to back. The album was composed and executed as an album. It was never just a song here and there, it was completely outlined before the production started.”

The album’s first offering is the mind-unravelling and multi-layered groover, “Happiness”, which comes in a single version and an immersive, full album version.

“We originally wanted to blend the sounds of synthpop, edm, shoegaze, and introduce a recurring motif with the key change that will lead into the final piece of the album. This particular track and the whole album in general has this theme that is inspired by watching countless episodes of VH1 behind the music and E True Hollywood story.”

Stream the single version on Spotify.
Stream the 7 + minute full album version on Spotify.
Stream the single version on Bandcamp.
Stream the full album version on Bandcamp.

Musician Names/Instruments: Scott Raulie and Jonathan Richerson
Producer Name(s): The Gluten Freemasons

Websites:
Twitter:@1000_Resorts
Instagram: @millennium_resorts
Spotify: https://spotify.link/VcVhNPmqmDb
Bandcamp
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/millennium-resorts
Youtube Channel

Artist Biography:

Millennium Resorts is Scott Raulie and Jonathan Richerson. They found that they had a lot in common in terms of what they appreciated most about music. Favorite bands such as Radiohead, Pink Floyd, The Mars Volta, and My Bloody Valentine. They wanted to try to create something epic that was a little more interesting than a lot of the dreampop/shoegaze we hear recently and take the infectious aesthetic and textures of synthwave music and move them in a less repetitive and more engaging and rewarding direction for the listener.

Take some of the ethereal and transcending textures from bands like Slowdive or Pale Saints and fuse them with the prog and soundtrack synth sounds of the 70s and 80s. They would never put themselves up to par with these, but compositions like Paranoid Android, Shine on You Crazy Diamond, and Stairway to Heaven are at the heart of what they are trying to do which is create something ambitious, epic, and memorable. We also wanted to put the guitar solo back on the map. The album has some pretty meaty lengthy solos, but we hope guitar fans will appreciate them.

One of the most important aspects of “In The Key of David” is that it is meant to be listened to from front to back. The album was composed and executed as an album. It was never just a song here and there, it was completely outlined before the production started. The entire skeleton of the album from track 1 to track 11 was composed on a piano before the recording process started. It was a very rough outline inspired by the way they would approach writing a screenplay, they took the same approach and wrote an entire outline of the album and used it as a draft to produce the entire album. There’s a beginning, a middle, and a conclusion. They put an intermission so that you can take a breather before you tackle the 2nd half of the album. Ever since I saw my first Stanley Kubrick film, and there was an intermission, I just always thought that was cool.

Pretentious? Perhaps, and that’s why we’ve cut down a couple of tracks and turned them into singles that can be digested in normal fashion, but ultimately the singles fall short compared to the experience of listening to the full tracks as you move through the entire album. There are several musical themes that intertwine and call back to each other developing through the album all the way up to the end. It really is the old idiom that the sum is greater than the parts. As far as the themes and the “story” of “The Key of David,” I know it’s a copout, but that’s up to the listener. No doubt we will get comparisons to cyberpunk and mentions of “dystopian themes,” which I think is fair, but this goes way beyond computers and robots, but again, we’ll let the listener interpret.