Skip to content

dream-pop

Beach House | Become EP (2023)

beach_house_become


New EP of previously unreleased material from the sessions for Beach House 2022 album, Once Twice Melody. The Become EP is a collection of 5 songs from the Once Twice Melody sessions. We didn’t think they fit in the world of OTM, but later realized they all fit in a little world of their own. To us, they are all kind of scuzzy and spacious, and live in the spirit realm. It’s not really where we are currently going, but it’s definitely somewhere we have been. We hope you enjoy these tunes, Alex and Victoria/Beach House. Sub Pop Records

Read More »Beach House | Become EP (2023)

Death and Vanilla | Flicker (2023)

death_and_vanilla_flicker


Death and Vanilla return with ‘Flicker’, presenting their unique pop music that defies categorisation. Housed in a beautifully austere post-ironic de-constructed sleeve; album is a modern reflection on these difficult times. World crises notwithstanding, they return reborn, re-arranged and revitalised after assimilating dub reggae, the motorik spirals of Can, the modal meander of Philip Glass and The Cure’s dreamier pop sounds; plus the twice removed symphonic ambience of Spiritualized and Talking Heads under heavy manners from Brian Eno. By osmosis their period of transition since 2019’s much darker ‘Are You A Dreamer?’ has hatched new eclectic electronica anthems riddled with melody lines, and layered for lush love.
Forming in Malmö, Sweden, group gravitated towards vintage musical equipment; from vibraphone, organ and mellotron, to tremolo guitar and Moog synthesisers. Soaking up soundtracks from the 60s and 70s… Fire Records

Read More »Death and Vanilla | Flicker (2023)

Gnoomes – Ax Ox

ax_ox

As musicians across the world have watched the last decade systematically eating away at the infrastructure by which they pursue their art, triumphs against adversity have sometimes entered the realm of cliche. Yet few bands have undergone quite the travails that Perm, Russia’s Gnoomes have on the road to the release of their fourth release on Rocket Recordings, Ax Ox.
From such traumatic circumstances, with the band having overcome the stress of a pandemic, illness, depression and serious turmoil in their home country to reach a point where they can offer their music to the world, have arrived a kaleidoscopic and questing vision shot through with potent melancholia and strident optimism. Bandcamp
Read More »Gnoomes – Ax Ox

The Telescopes – Experimental Health

Experimental Health

Experimental Health is the 14th album from The Telescopes and their third release on Weisskalt. The Telescopes are an all-embracing concern which began in 1987 – the only constant, being sole composer and instigator, Northumbrian born, Stephen Lawrie. The band’s line-up is in constant flux: there can be anywhere between 1 and 20 members on a recording. This album was created entirely independently by Lawrie in a remote cottage in West Yorkshire between January and May 2022.
Experimental Health is folk music made with broken toys and cheap synths – mostly Pocket Operators and miniature synths. Here are no guitars present on the album, most of the instrumentation…  Weisskalt records
Read More »The Telescopes – Experimental Health

Hollie Kenniff | We All Have Places That We Miss (2023)

hollie_kenniff
Active as half of synth/dream pop duo Mint Julep since the 2000s, Hollie Kenniff began releasing solo material in 2019. Departing from the group’s hook-heavy, often danceable pop songs, her own music is lush, hazy, and a bit nostalgic, blending ambient synths and chiming guitar melodies with wordless, textural vocals… AllMusic
Kenniff’s second LP for Western Vinyl, We All Have Places That We Miss, is a chorus of cloudlike synths, seraphic strings, humming drones, and reverb drenched shoegaze guitars, all melding into an impressionistic story of remembrance, loss, family, and connection… Western Vinyl
The beauty of Kenniff’s music is that it is alive with emotion, and we can imprint our own images upon the pieces. Some feelings are universal though it might not be a home or a favourite place we have lost. We rated The Quiet Drift very highly – it was our second favourite album of 2021 – and it’s possible we felt so strongly about it then because it felt like being in the company of an old friend and that was what we needed at the time. It was a record that captured our imagination and touched our hearts… A Closer Listen

Read More »Hollie Kenniff | We All Have Places That We Miss (2023)

Simon Rowe | Everybody’s Thinking (2023)

simon_rowe

If the name Simon Rowe isn’t immediately familiar to you, the names Chapterhouse and Mojave 3 may be more so. He played guitar in both acts – the former one of the original shoegaze acts and the latter a more Americana-type proposition – and while you may hear echoes of the latter in this album, this third act for the artist is a rather different proposition… God is in the TV
Gently starting with an instrumental called ‘Croxted Crows’, this album slowly unfolds as a sweetly pastoral, gentle, psychedelic delight. There are minor chords and delicate harmonies, phased effects and carefully arranged instrumentation all combining to create a hazy, heady, summery sound. Supported by fellow Mojave 3 troubadours Neil Halstead… AmericanaUK

Read More »Simon Rowe | Everybody’s Thinking (2023)