Before signing with Captured Tracks, Portland-based Reptaliens weren’t purposely trying to make a band. Their 2017 debut LP, FM-2030, allowed wife and husband duo, Bambi and Cole Browning, to tour with STRFKR, Cults, and of Montreal. After, the group immerse themselves in the studio and ended up creating the sun-dappled compositions that are part of VALIS. Reptaliens has a sound of their own — a chill wave, still complex jazzy lo-fi, easy going concoction of textures and sounds that are unpretentious. Nonetheless the simplicity and spectacle that are the lyrics remains as the unifying factor of how the songs travel together. The lyrics in VALIS are unusually spitted with a minimalist airiness to them that’s inviting, and soothing. You can still sing along, you can still dance to them, all without losing perspective of the intimate atmosphere you are now trapped in, just because each one it’s attached to the next in vibe, context and its formulaic nonchalant presentation. Because of this, the sophomore attempt of the group is easy to get hooked on with. 

Read full album review here.