Moritat’s new self-released album, Vermilion, settles in like the night. The Chicago art-rock band’s subtle, magnetic polyrhythms simmer with the allure of a backyard bonfire or an open-air midnight dance party, and their cool, melodious synths feel like a predawn drive on an empty road lit only by stars. Moritat’s core members—Venus Laurel, Corey McCafferty, and Konstantin Jace—rearrange the elements of post-quiet storm R&B at odd angles without disrupting its luminous, restrained thrills. Throughout Vermilion, pitter-pattering drums and plinking keys show their bony elbows even as they hang together in smooth melodic surges. Moritat carefully control the tension in their songs to engineer emotional payoffs: on the 2021 single “Camera,” squared-off panes of shimmering keys compete with thrumming, frazzled rhythms, so that the sudden blossoming of vocal harmonies releases the song’s coiled energy like an ecstatic fireworks display.
Moritat, Imelda Marcos, Courtesy, Mon 5/9, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, free, 21+
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