Gig Review: Vines
Posted: by The Alt Editing Staff
Photo by Phong Tran
Lower Manhattan wasn’t always an algorithmically-curated playground for micro-influencers. Before it was prohibitively expensive and backed by private equity, it once teemed with artsy types who frequented nearby iconic venues. The dream of making it in NYC was once a possibility, not a punchline. In the ’80s and ’90s, gentrification swept through the city and emerging music moved to Brooklyn and Queens. Just blocks away from where Talking Heads and the Ramones performed at CBGB, Berlin Under A serves as a launchpad for up-and-coming talent, one of the last of its kind in the area.
Vines, the solo project of NYC-based multi-instrumentalist Cassie Wieland, illuminated the windowless space with a dreamy blend of synths, percussion, and vocoder. While studying classical music and composition in undergrad and grad school, Wieland was drawn to repetitive structures and minimal arrangements. But most notably, she blew up on TikTok last year–incredibly rare for an ambient artist.
Photo by Phong Tran
Faint drums from Adam Holmes and syrupy violin from Adrianne Munden-Dixon enhanced the world around each deeply personal track. When she sings, it’s heavily modulated. Her voice melts into the soundscape. Each track bleeds into the next. Layer by layer, she constructs sweeping worlds of sound that wade through grief and acceptance.
Vines glided through her intimate performance at the celebration for her new self-released LP, I’ll Be There, pausing briefly to introduce her band and thank her producer, Mike Tierney. “Though this is a solo project, I couldn’t have done this alone,” she remarked. Cheers from friends and family bounced off the dark walls, echoing throughout the snug bar.
Photo by Phong Tran
I’ll Be There is out now, and Vines is on Instagram.
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Giliann Karon
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