A Stable Reference is the second album by Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

n post-rock

Post-rock

Post-rock is a subgenre of rock music characterized by the influence and use of instruments commonly associated with rock, but using rhythms and "guitars as facilitators of timbre and textures" not traditionally found in rock...

 band Labradford

Labradford

Labradford is a U.S. post-rock musical group from Richmond, Virginia, founded in 1991. They have released six full albums from 1993 to 2001. Though not officially disbanded, its members have since been active with separate projects.-Biography:...

, released on the May 26, 1995.

Reception

The Allmusic review by Ned Raggett awarded the album 4 stars stating "The biggest change on Reference has remained a near-constant ever since, namely, the removal of lyrics and vocal parts from almost all tracks, outside of some extremely understated and intentionally buried in-the-mix-bits scattered throughout the record. Other long-running motifs started to appear as well -- astoundingly obscure cover art, short and/or nonsensical terms for song titles, such as "SEDR 77," and even more attention on mix complexity, with subtle yet important sonic elements and samples scattered throughout the songs. The middle track of the release remains the most noteworthy -- "Eero," a long, doomy song consisting almost entirely of guitar reverb -- without guitar -- and dark keyboard drones echoing into the far distance. Songs like "Mas" and "Balanced on Its Own Flame" retain the greatest similarity to Prazision LP due to the echoed, deliberate guitar playing and general pace, yet in the end, Reference already points to the increasingly more challenging albums in Labradford's near future. ".

Track listing

1. "Mas" – 4:32
2. "El Lago" – 5:29
3. "Streamlining" – 4:44
4. "Banco" – 5:03
5. "Eero" – 6:50
6. "Balanced on Its Own Flame" – 4:02
7. "Star City, Russia" – 5:03
8. "Comfort" – 6:14
9. "SEDR 77" – 4:07