Spectreview: Gabija & The Blue Gleams – Patch 001 [EP]

Released: February 12, 2021

Jazz
(Electronic)
(Video Game)

-RED-

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Full disclaimer: I LOVE covers of video game music. I’m looking forward to the day when I can properly express, with ample research, just how much the last twenty years of advancements in video games have affected generations of music makers. Until then, here’s a three-song EP of SNES-era covers by Bellingham keyboardist Gabija Vaičekonis and her trouped of accomplished players.

Each of these songs will be recognizable to anybody with a passing familiarity of the SNES’ heyday; just the first few seconds of “Kirby Save Hut” will put you right back into that pastel wonderland. The other two tracks are renditions of cherry-picked classics from Yasunori Mitsuda’s masterful work Chrono Trigger, and while their spaced-out take on “Memories of Green” is pleasantly dreamy, its the slow-building “Secret of the Forest,” with its subtly-seraphic vocal harmonies, that arguably heightens the original.

The playing here is solid across the board, but true to the group’s name it’s Gabija and her keyboard that shines here. At times she’s the pliable backbone behind the band jazzy whimsy, while at others she takes the lead on squiggly melodies and twinkling touches. While Patch 001 might be brief, it’s an effective glimpse into a collective talent.

Recommended for Maxim tomatoes and rainbow shells.