Angelina Beroe is an emerging singer/songwriter and producer, who specializes in a sassy take on art rock and baroque pop that draws from Kate Bush, King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Serge Gainsbourg and Brian Wilson. However, her latest single, the swooning “In Love” brings JOVM mainstays Still Corners to mind as the song features a gorgeous yet subtly brooding arrangement of shimmering, reverb-drenched guitars, a supple bass line, glistening keys paired with an infectious hook and Beroe’s sultry cooing.
“In Love,” as Beroe explains is focused on the many facets and stages of infatuation, and the element of obsession that comes with it. The end result is as one that suggests that love is in its own way an obsession that could become dangerous.
Directed by Beroe, the accompanying video for “In Love” is fittingly a sultry fever dream fueled by obsession, lust and classic movies.
Emerging French indie rock project Edgar Mauer was formed back in 2020 by its founding member, singer/songwriter and musician Maëve as a way to work around various gender issues. Alan, a multi-instrumentalist and sound engineer and Camille Bigeault (drums) joined, turning the project into a full-fledged band that developed a sound that meshes elements of Bristol trip-hop and Kate Bush-like pop with a modern touch.
The trio’s latest single “Elma Casper,” is a gorgeous and slow-burning dream pop-like song centered around Maëve’s yearning delivery, Bigeault’s tribal-like drumming, Alan’s glistening guitars paired with a soaring hook. Sonically “Elma Casper” — to my ears — recalls The Sundays, The Cocteau Twins and even Mazzy Star. And much like those acts, the song itself is rooted in the deeply personal, with a novelist’s attention to psychological detail.
As the band explains, the song’s inspiration comes from a mysterious name scrawled on a wall in Paris — Elma Casper. And Maëve wound up writing a song, imagining what Elma Casper’s life would be, while also wondering if someone scrawled her name on a random wall, if someone would be as curious as she was. They add that the song is an ode to the feelings and experiences we leave behind when living and leaving ap lace, accepting our own trajectory.
Silk Skin Lovers — Félix Foucambert (vocals, guitar), Jean-Baptiste Halin (bass, bass synths), Lucas Lerbret (guitar, backing vocals) and London-born Callum Taylor (keys, backing vocals) — is a rising French indie rock outfit that emerged into French scene with a handful of singles inspired by and informed by nightlife and nightlife revelry.
Last year’s debut EP, Bloom saw the band crafting material that frequently bounced between playful optimism and delight to late-night melancholy. In many ays, the EP evoked the blurring of memories from a night out to the brink of sobering up a bit as you head home — or when you arrive home, whichever came first. And although the EP’s material is primarily rooted in a magical surrealism, there are points where it reveals a thoughtful band concerned about serious issues of the day, including racism and police brutality.
“The first seeds of Bloom were planted in the summer of 2020,” the members of Silk Skin Lovers explain. “As a young and developing band, we found ourselves growing in a context that was harsh and complicated, as opportunities for artists were scarce to non-existent for a period. The EP was a natural response to not only the artistic restraints we were faced with, but the frustration of being away from what we love to do, and further from our aspirations as musicians.”
Earlier this year, I wrote about the uptempo Smiths-like EP single “Moon 1AM,” a track that revealed itself to be deceptively upbeat: the song is actually a dreamy and bittersweet rumination meant to make you dance away your sorrows for a few minutes.
Silk Skin Lovers followed that up with the Beach House-like “Forever,” a slow-burning ballad centered around atmospheric synths, shimmering, reverb-drenched guitars, gently padded drums and Foucambert’s achingly plaintive vocals. The end result is a song that simultaneously evoked euphoria and melancholy.
The French pop outfit’s latest single “Wake Me Up When We Get There” continues a remarkable run of hook driven, dance floor friendly bops. Featuring glistening synth arpeggios, shimmering guitars, Foucambert’s achingly earnest delivery paired with metronomic-like thump and the act’s knack for infectious, razor sharp hooks, “Wake Me Up When We Get There” is a decidedly indebted to 80s pop — and if you’re a child of the 80s, you’ll probably think of A Flock of Seagulls, Human League and countless others.
But much like the previously released “Moon 1AM,” “Wake Me Up When We Get There” sees the band specializing in — and subtly refining — what the band has dubbed “happy melancholy.” It’s the sort of song where you can bond with those who have experienced a similar heartache as you with a knowing nod — and the sort of song meant for you to dance away your hurt for a few minutes.
With the release of 2019’s self-titled, full-length debut, Toronto-based dream pop outfit Tallies — Dylan Frankland (guitar), Sarah Cogan (vocals, guitar) and Cian O’Neill (drums) — exploded into the national and international scenes: The album received praise from the likes of Under the Radar, DIY Magazine, The Line of Best Fit, MOJO, Bandcamp Daily, Exclaim!, KEXP and others. And adding to a rapidly growing profile, the Toronto-based dream poppers have opened for Mudhoney, Hatchie, Tim Burgess and Weaves.
The band’s Graham Walsh and Dylan Frankland co-produced sophomore album Patina, which was recorded at Palace Sound, Holy Fuck‘s Baskitball 4 Life and Candle Recording is slated for a July 29, 2022 release through Kanine Records here in the States, Hand Drawn Dracula in Canada and Bella Union in the UK and EU. The album, which was understandably delayed as a result of the pandemic is simultaneously a labor of love and a bold step forward for the Canadian trio: Firmly rooted in their penchant in juxtaposing light and dark, the album continues to see the band drawing from Lush, Beach House and Cocteau Twins, but with a greater emphasis on shimmering guitars, earnest, lived-in songwriting — and a well-placed, razor sharp hook.
The album will feature, the previously released “No Dreams of Fayres,” an ironically upbeat single that sonically brought The Sundays‘ “Here’s Where The Story Ends,” while documenting Sarah Cogan’s struggles with depression — in particular, thee moments, when she was trying to work it out, but just couldn’t find the energy to do so.
“‘No Dreams of Fayres’ is a reflection of thoughts that I remember going through my mind when I stayed still in bed,” Tallies’ Sarah Cogan explains in press notes. “Feeling as though staying still in bed was the only thing that would help the sadness – basically, disconnecting myself from family, friends, and having a life. Finding the way out of depression was hard but possible. ‘No Dreams of Fayres’ is also about the realization of letting yourself feel real feelings but not mistaking them for emotions. I had to learn to get a grip of what I wanted out of life and go for it with no self-sabotage – which was music, as cliché as it sounds. It pulled me out of bed, physically and mentally.”
Patina‘s latest single “Special” continues a run remarkable run of deceptively upbeat shoegazer-inspired jangle pop featuring Cogan’s plaintive vocals, Frankland’s shimmering reverb-drenched guitar lines and O’Neill’s propulsive drumming paired with their unerring knack for razor sharp, anthemic hooks. But despite its breezy nature, the song is underpinned by a an aching and familiar yearning: “‘Special,’ as Sarah Cogan explains “is about longing to be seen and heard by those who matter to you most. Sometimes, feeling invisible is particularly painful when the indifference comes from someone whose opinion means a lot to you.”
Directed by Justis Krar at IMMV Productions, the accompanying video for “Special” features carefully edited stock footage from movies and home videos: The video begins with fingers and toes — dipping into water, or shampooed hair before following a troubled and bored couple, who have deeply unaddressed issues. You can read the pain and heartache in both of their faces, and it further emphasizes the themes at the heart of the song.
Baltimore-based JOVM mainstays Beach House — lead vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Victoria Legrand and multi-instrumentalist Alex Scally — formed back in 2004. And in their nearly two decades together, have released eight albums, including their critically applauded, most commercially successful album to date, the 18-song, double LP Once Twice Melody, which was released through Sub Pop Records earlier this year. (Since I mentioned that the album is their most commercially successful to date, Once Twice Melody recently peaked at #1 on Billboard‘s Album Sales Chart, the duo’s first-ever album to do so. It also debuted at #1 on the Top Alternative Albums, Top Rock Albums, Tastemaker Albums and Top Current Album Sales Charts. And the album also spent six weeks at #1 on the NACC 200 College Charts.)
Primarily written between 2018 and last July, Once Twice Melody also features a handful of songs that date back at least a decade earlier. The album was mostly recorded at Baltimore’s Apple Orchard Studio and produced by the band — a first for the band. Much like 7, Once Twice Melody features live drumming by the band’s longtime touring drummer James Barone, recorded at Pachyderm Studio in Minnesota and United Recording in Los Angeles. The album also features a string ensemble, performing arrangements by David Campbell.
Across Once Twice Melody‘s 18 songs, the JOVM mainstays have written material that features several different styles, song structures and spirits: Listeners will hear songs without drums, songs centered around acoustic guitar, electronic songs without guitar, songs with wandering melodies, songs with repetitive melodies and songs built around string arrangements. And while the album sees the band expanding upon and playing with their sound, the duo haven’t completely eschewed the arrangements and sounds that have won them acclaim across their previous seven albums.
Last night, the Baltimore-based JOVM mainstays were on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where they performed the glittering and wistful “Superstar,” a song that looks back at a romantic relationship and compares it to a shooting star that quickly flashes, burns out and reappears somewhere else.
The live footage will give you a great taste of what to expect of the duo’s live show, just before they continue their extensive, headlining international tour to support Once Twice Melody. The tour has been extended through November 2022 with a handful of newly added dates including several stops across the global festival circuit: Omaha, NE’s Maha Festival (July 29th-30th), Portugal’s Paredes De Coura (Aug. 17th-20th), Salt Lake City, UT’s Ogden Twilight (August 25th), Pasadena, CA’s This Ain’t No Picnic (Aug. 28th), Las Vegas, NV’s Life Is Beautiful (Sep. 16th-18th), Bentonville, AR’s Format Festival (Sep. 23rd-25th), and Primavera Sound Editions in Brazil, (Sao Paulo, Nov. 5th), Chile (Santiago, Nov. 11th), and Argentina (Buenos Aires, Nov. 13th).
For my fellow New Yorkers, the JOVM will be playing two dates at the breathtakingly beautiful Kings Theatre: July 19, 2022 and July 20, 2022.
Silk Skin Lovers — Félix Foucambert (vocals, guitar), Jean-Baptiste Halin (bass, bass synths), Lucas Lerbret (guitar, backing vocals) and London-born Callum Taylor (keys, backing vocals) — is a rising French indie rock outfit that emerged into French scene with a handful of singles inspired by and informed by nightlife and nightlife revelry.
Released last year, Silk Screen Lovers’ debut EP, Bloom saw the band crafting material that bounced between playful delight to late-night melancholy; the blurring of memories to the brink of sobering up a bit as you head home — or when you arrive home, whichever comes first. While the EP’s material is primarily based in magical surrealism, it also reveals a band concerned about serious issues, including racism and police brutality.
“The first seeds of Bloom were planted in the summer of 2020,” the members of Silk Skin Lovers explain. “As a young and developing band, we found ourselves growing in a context that was harsh and complicated, as opportunities for artists were scarce to non-existent for a period. The EP was a natural response to not only the artistic restraints we were faced with, but the frustration of being away from what we love to do, and further from our aspirations as musicians.”
Earlier this year, I wrote about the the uptempo, Smiths-like bop “Moon 1AM,” a track that revealed itself to be emotionally ambivalent: despite the upbeat tempo, the song was a bittersweet and dreamy rumination meant to make you dance away your sorrows — even if it’s only for a little bit.
The rising French act’s latest single, “Forever” is a slow-burning and dreamy ballad centered around atmospheric synths, shimmering, reverb-drenched guitars, gently padded drums and Foucambert’s achingly plaintive vocals. “Forever” manages to sonically recall Beach House while simultaneously evoking melancholy and euphoria.
Directed by Robinson Lebret, the accompanying video for “Forever” follows a young woman as she prepares for a night out — to catch Silk Skin Lovers at a local club while reminiscing about a presumed lost love. And as a result, the video is a fever dream in which past and present bump into each other uncomfortably, and where ghosts linger.
Since their formation back in 2016, JOVM mainstays No Swoon — Tasha Abbott (vocals, guitar) and Zack Nestel-Patt (synths, baas) — have developed an established sound that sees the pair meshing elements of dream pop, shoegaze, post-punk and ethereal wave through two releases, 2018’s EP 1 and 2019’s ’s Jorge Elbrecht-produced, self-titled full-length debut.
Much like countless others across the world, the COVID-19 pandemic, threw the the lives and plans of the JOVM mainstays into disarray: their planned tour to support their full-length debut had to be scrapped entirely. After spending the past five years in Brooklyn, the duo relocated to Los Angeles. And understandably, spending over a year in quarantine-imposed isolation forced the pair to step back and think about their lives in new ways — and to examine the intricacies of going through life as we know it.
During the pandemic, the duo released a couple of singles during the pandemic: The Siamese Dream era Smashing Pumpkins meets Slowdive like Again,” a single that marked massive, life-altering transitions for the duo: their aforementioned return back West paired with a reworked sound and approach.
As the JOVM mainstays explained in press notes, “This song is about when days begin and end with no real definition. About being stuck in the loop of our life and we can’t get out. It may come to no surprise that this song was written early on in the Pandemic. Before everything shut down, I (Tasha) was constantly moving: work, music, sleep, etc., and being at stand-still all of a sudden was definitely strange (on top of the already terror and stress of the pandemic).”
“Again” will appear on the band’s highly-anticipated sophomore album Take Your Time. Slated for a Friday release, the lion share of Take Your Time was recorded by the band in Western Massachusetts, amidst the isolation of pandemic related quarantine — with the band’s Nestel-Patt taking up engineering duties during the initial recording sessions. The album features guest spots from longtime collaborator Jon Smith (drums), along with Furrows‘ and Olden Yolk’s Peter Wagner (guitar). Jake Aaron contributed some additional production and Chris Coady mixed the album, pushing the material into something otherworldly.
Take Your Time‘s material was conceived and written during both personal and global transitions and turmoil — but while celebrating a joyful acceptance of the paths that have lead each of us to where we are right now. About the album’s themes, No Swoon’s Abbott contends, “We are so hard on ourselves for decisions we made years ago. I have plenty of regrets, but I also see it as a process, and it’s ok that I didn’t realize the hopes and dreams of 20-year old me. What did she know anyways?”
In the lead up to the album’s release, I’ve written about two more singles:
“Besides,” Take Your Time‘s first official single that sonically nods a bit at JOVM mainstays Beach House, but was inspired by a wild, enigmatic dream the band’s Tasha Abbott once had in which, while exploring a mysterious cavern, she stumbled upon a secret and apparently blissful cult with ambiguous intentions.
“I have some really weird dreams,” Abbott said in press notes. “They are often these wide-ranging sci-fi stories. This song is part 2 of the same dream that inspired a song on our first record ‘Don’t wake up, wake up‘. That dream had ended with meandering into a cave that turned out to be the home to a cult where everyone looked the same and seemed very ‘happy.’ Though, obviously they were not very happy because it was a cult. I eventually got out.”
“Wait to See,” a simultaneously brushing and dreamily introspective song centered around a maelstrom of synths, driving percussion and blown out bass paired with Abbott’s ethereal vocals that Abbott explains is about growing up and getting older.
“We’re talking to our younger selves who had very specific dreams and ideas of how our lives would pan out. But as we all know, the hopes and dreams we had at 15 are usually not our realities when we grow up.. We could look back and be upset that we didn’t become who we had hoped to be, or we could relish the new ideas and new dreams, and be ok with where we are. This song is about how looking back now, you can see the path that led to where we are now and how we wish we could tell our younger selves to be kind to who we will grow up to be.”
“Spare the Time,” Take Your Time‘s final single is a slow-burning and wistful track centered around buzzing guitars, fluttering synths paired with Abbott’s plaintive vocals begging and invoking a creative muse to inhabit her — if only for a brief period of time. “Spare the Time” will feel familiar to those, who have suffered through writer’s block, and have a deadline to complete something.
London-based dream pop act and JOVM mainstays Still Corners — vocalist and keyboardist Tessa Murray and multi-instrumentalist, producer and songwriter Greg Hughes — have managed to bounce between chilly and atmospheric pop and shimmering guitar-driven, desert noir through five full-length albums: 2012’s Creatures of an Hour, 2013’s Strange Pleasures, 2016’s Dead Blue, 2018’s Slow Air and 2020’s The Last Exit.
The Last Exit continued where its immediate predecessor left off with 11 songs centered around shimmering and carefully crafted arrangements featuring organic instrumentation paired with Tessa Murray’s smoky crooning. Thematically, the album took the listener through a hypnotic and mesmerizing journey filled with dilapidated and long-abandoned towns, mysterious shapes appearing on the horizon and long trips that blur the lines between what’s there and not there.
The album’s material was brought into further focus as a result of pandemic-related lockdowns and quarantines. “There’s always something at the end of the road and for us it was this album. Our plans were put on hold – an album set for release, tours, video shoots, travel,” Tessa Murray explained in press notes for The Last Exit. “We’d been touring nonstop for years, but we were forced to pause everything. We thought the album was finished but with the crisis found new inspiration and started writing again.” Three of the album’s songs — “Crying,” “Static,” and “‘Till We Meet Again” were written during this period and they reflect upon the profound impact of isolation and the human need for social contact and intimacy.
Late last year, the JOVM mainstays released “Heavy Days,” a propulsive and uptempo bop featuring twinkling synth arpeggios, a chugging motorik groove, shimmering and reverb drenched guitars and a soaring hook paired with Murray’s smoky vocals. In many ways, “Heavy Days” could be seen as a synthesis of Dead Blue, Slow Air and The Last Exit.
Despite the literal weight of its title, “Heavy Days” may arguably be one of the more optimistic and sunnier songs of the duo’s growing catalog. “Sometimes it all feels like too much, there’s a lot to take in reading the news all the time,” Still Corners’ Tessa Murray said in press notes. “We wanted to write a reminder to put the phone down now and again and get out there and live life to the fullest while you can.”
The JOVM mainstays latest single “Far Rider” sees the duo returning to the sound of Slow Air and The Last Exit: shimmering and reverb-drenched guitar twang, a steady and propulsive rhythm and Murray’s imitably smoky vocals placed within an expansive and mind-bending song structure that’s roomy enough for a lengthy and hallucinogenic guitar solo and gently oscillating synths. At one point, Murray’s own vocal is sampled, distorted and layered into the mix to add to the dream-like vibe. Much like their last two albums, “Far Rider” evokes the lingering ghosts, regret and old memories conjured up on lonely drives meant to clear your head — or to redeem yourself.
“This song is about leaving, lost love and finding yourself somewhere on the journey, really it’s about redemption,” Still Corners Tessa Murray explains. I recently drove 6000 miles across the southwest to feel the sun on my face and think. We used the dreamlike nature of the song to capture the landscape and a hypnotic feel to conjure up the long and lonely travel days.”
Primarily shot in the New Mexico desert during “Golden Hour,” the accompanying video for “Far Rider” follows a lone and weary traveler walking across the sandy dunes trying to forget a lost love or a escaping from a past that’s best forgotten forever. The dream-like nature of the song is emphasized with trippy effects.
“We filmed this video during a 6000 mile trip to New Mexico. We did it all on a handheld camera. Most of the time we would drive way out to a spot and have to wait until the light was right, the golden hour etc.,” Still Corners’ Tessa Murray explains. ” One of the places we went to was White Sands and we spent ages sitting in a sand dune in the shade waiting for the light to change. The sand is pure white gypsum so reflects the sun to such a degree it’s completely blinding. The good thing is the sun takes a while to set so you have about 30 minutes of beautiful light. We only had one problem, all the sand dunes look very similar, there’s really no landmarks so as it became dark we got completely lost on the way back to the car, it was a little scary but we made it. We love how it turned out, it captures the vibe of the song perfectly.”
Influenced by The Cure,Cocteau Twins and Joy Division and others, the Swiss-American shoegaze duo The Churchhill Garden — currently, founding member Andy Jossi (guitar) and Whimsical‘s Krissy Vanderwoude (vocals) — was originally founded by Jossi as a solo recording project back in 2010 as a way for the Swiss-born and-based guitarist to plug into his emotions and to focus on writing music without any pressure.
A friend had showed Jossi how to use GarageBand, which he eventually used for some of his earliest recordings. He was determine to become a better guitarist and songwriter, so he learned from his mistakes, which helped him advance as an artist. As he was growing as a musician and songwriter, Jossi discovered Logic, which led to an improved and lusher quality to his recordings.
Around the same time, Jossi began to notice that the songs he had begun to write were more expansive, and although largely inspired by Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound, shoegaze, post punk and jangle pop, the material revealed his own take on the sounds he had long loved. The Swiss guitarist and songwriting posted his compositions on Myspace without expecting much in return but, he was pleasantly surprised and encouraged by the positive response he received. Although he had enjoyed writing and recording the material he posted on MySpace, he felt as though the material was missing something — vocals.
Hoping to broaden his musical horizons, the Swiss guitarist and songwriter sought out a few local vocalists to collaborate with. His first collaboration was with The Reaction’s Max Burki, one of Jossi’s local musical heroes. Jossi then went on to record two more tracks with Eva Tresch. Technological advances — i.e., home recording studios and programs, as well as file sharing — allowed Jossi to collaborate with vocalists outside of his native Switzerland. His first collaboration with a foreign vocalist, “Noisy Butterfly,” which featured Italian vocalist Damiano Rosetti helped expand The Churchhill Garden’s audience and fanbase outside of Switzerland.
“The Same Sky” was released to an overwhelmingly positive response with people generally commenting that they felt a magical chemistry between the two — and after a couple of songs together, they both realized that Vanderwoude should be a permanent and full-time member of The Churchhill Garden. And while Vanderwoude is a permanent member of The Churchill Garden, Jossi has continued to collaborate with other vocalists, including including Seashine’s Demi Haynes and Fables‘ and Swirl’s Ben Aylward.
Back in 2020, The Churchhill Garden released their full-length debut, a double LP album Heart and Soul, which their fans had clamored for, for quite some time. Since Heart and Soul, the duo have been busily writing, recording and releasing new material including the Souvlaki-era Slowdive and So Tonight That I May See-era Mazzy Star-like “Fade Away,” and the slow-burning, Cocteau Twins-like “Lonely.”
Clocking in at a little over seven-and-a-half minutes, the slow-burning “Rearview Mirror,” the Transatlantic shoegaze duo’s latest single begins with a gorgeous and lengthy acoustic guitar-led intro that slowly morphs into a noisy and towering wall of sound centered around Jossi’s impressive guitar work and Vanderwoude’s achingly plaintive and ethereal vocals. While arguably being the most Storm in Heaven-like track of their rapidly growing catalog, the song details a heartbreakingly bittersweet relationship including its sublime highs, darkest lows and ultimately, its conclusion.
The cinematic, accompanying video for “Rearview Mirror” follows a stranded astronaut who has crash landed on a remarkably Earth-like world — and some mind-bending visual effects that capture the slow-burning storminess of the song.
Rising New York-based outfit Colatura — Jennica (bass, vocals), Digo (guitar, vocals) and Meredith (guitar, synth, vocals) is a rising Brooklyn-based indie trio that features multiple lead singers while establishing a sound that’s sometimes dreamy and sometimes heavy, centered around pop-leaning melodies and post-punk atmospherics. And as a result, some critics have described them as “Fleetwood Mac with shoegaze guitars.”
With the release of 2018’s debut EP Spring Drew Blood and a handful of singles released in 2020, including “I Don’t Belong Here,” the Brooklyn-based indie outfit built up some buzz: They’ve been featured by The Deli and Oh My Rockness, and they’ve received breathless praise from Full Time Aesthetic, who covered a live show and wrote “the easiest way to describe Colatura is they’re like sunshine streaming out of an amplifier with its volume set at nine.” Adding to a growing profile locally, Colatura has played sets at Rough Trade, Baby’s All Right, Mercury Lounge and Elsewhere as well as house parties and DIY Brooklyn venues.
The band’s full-length debut, And Then I’ll Be Happy is slated for an April 22, 2022 release. Album single “Team Sport,” was released to breathless praise from the likes of BrooklynVegan and Under The Radar — with Under The Radar making references to Cocteau Twins,Alvvays and Yumi Zouma. And Then I’ll Be Happy‘s latest single “Kids Like Us” continues a run of gorgeous, nostalgia-inducing, 120 MinutesMTV-like dream pop featuring Meredith’s plaintive and yearning vocals, reverb-drenched guitars, driving rhythms and the band’s unerring ability to craft an enormous hook.
Seemingly drawing from personal and very lived-in experience, the song is rooted in bittersweet memories of a dysfunctional, flawed family — with the recognition that you’ll only have one, very screwed up biological family for better or for worse.
“This song is about collective family baggage, mental illness, and destructive patterns that can repeat generation after generation,” the band’s Meredith Lampe explains in press notes. “We wrote it from the perspective of one sibling calling another to remind them that they made a pact to never have kids in the hopes of cutting off the negative cycle and to stop passing down traits that they wish they didn’t have themselves.
The accompanying video was made by Phantom Handshakes‘ Matt Sklar and features the band performing over a college of footage from each band member’s childhoods, which fittingly gives the visual a bittersweet, nostalgic air.
Pastel Coast, led by Boulogne-sur-Mer, France-based creative mastermind Quentin Isidore (vocals, guitar) and featuring Benjamin Fiorini (drums), Ingrid Letourneau (keys), Marion Plouviez (guitar, vocals) and Renaud Retaux (bass) have received attention both nationally and internationally for breezy yet melancholic sound that’s indebted to the early 90s Manchester scene and to acclaimed French indie act Phoenix.
2019 was a break through year for the rising French act: their full-length debut Hovercraft landed on Dream Pop Magazine‘s Top 100. Continuing upon that momentum, Pastel Coast released their sophomore album, last year’s Sun, which featured five critically applauded singles:
The attention grabbing “Rendezvous”
“Dial” a breezy synthesis of New Order and Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix-era Phoenix that evoked the swooning euphoria of new love.
“Sunset,” a glistening and breezy number that’s saw the band meshing New Zealand jangle pop and French pop focused on lovelorn folks racing against time to try to find love before sunset.
“Distance,” a synth-driven numbers featuring angular guitar bursts and a euphoria-inducing hook
“Funeral,” an achingly nostalgic song that wistfully yearned for simpler times and the “one that got away.”
“Helios,” is the first bit of new material from the French JOVM mainstays since the release of Sun. Centered around glistening synth arpeggios, Isidore’s plaintive vocals, a four-on-the-floor-led motorik groove, angular guitar bursts, “Helios” sonically — to my ears, at least — recalls fellow JOVM mainstays Yumi Zouma: a winning breezy melancholy that longs for bright sunny, Spring and Summer days, Spring and Summer crushes and flings and the like.
Directed by Robin Larroque and Quentin Sarda, the accompanying visual is a slick and stylish visual that features the members of the JOVM mainstay act performing the song in a studio in front of white walls. Each member of the band has a distinct shade of blue on, which explodes in front of the white background. The band also does some record cover art posing,. And at one point we see plastic balls dumped on top of individual band members. It’s a surreal and playful fever dream that eventually pulls out to see a behind-the-scenes view of the video.
Split between Indiana and Florida, dream pop/shoegaze outfit Whimsical — currently Krissy Vanderwoude (vocals) and Neil Burkdoll (guitar, production) — can trace their origins back to 1995 when Vanderwoude and Burkdoll met while attending high school in Indiana.
At the time, Burkdoll, along with Andy Muntean (drums) were members of a local band Mystified Thinking. Mystified Thinking split up when its members graduated from high school and gradually went their own ways. However, Burkdoll decided that he wanted to start a new band that was the complete opposite of what he had been writing with Mystified Thinking, which was primarily centered around depression and sadness.
Over the next handful of years, what eventually became Whimsical went through a few false starts and lineup changes before 1999 when the band settled upon their first lineup — Time Fogle (drums) and Joe Santelik (bass), along with Burkdoll and Vanderwoulde.
Their full-length debut, 2000’s Setting Suns Are Semi-Circles is considered a dream pop cult classic. The act went on to write their debut’s follow-up but they split up after that album was about 90% finished.
In 2015, Vanderwoulde and Burkdoll reunited to complete their long-anticipated sophomore album, the critically applauded Sleep to Dream, an effort that drew comparisons to Lush and The Cranberries, among others. Since the release of Sleep to Dream, the members of Whimsical have been busy: 2019 saw the release of the act’s third album, Bright Smiles and Broken Hearts. In between the release of Sleep to Dream and the writing sessions for their forth album, they also released a series of covers, featuring songs they’ve long wanted to cover including Motorhome’s “Sweet Valentine,” Smashing Pumpkins‘ “Snail,” and The Ocean Blue’s “Cerulean,” which reveals some of their influences.
And if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past couple of years, Krissy Vanderwoulde’s name may be familiar: she’s one half of the Transatlantic dream pop duo The Churchill Gardens.
Whimsical’s fourth album, the nine-song Melt is slated for an April 1st release through Shelflife Records here in the States and Through Love Records in Germany. Melt reportedly sees the duo pushing their sound in new directions while retaining the elements that their fans have expected and loved — namely, Burkdoll’s incandescent guitar and Vanderwoulde’s lilting and ethereal vocals.
Melt‘s third and latest single, the slow-burning and painterly “Quicksand” is a bit of a trip-hop take on dream pop with the song being centered around skittering beats, twinkling keys and sampled and manipulated guitars paired with Vanderwoulde’s lilting and ethereal vocals. The end result is a song that seems the duo nodding at Massive Attack, Cocteau Twins and A Storm in Heaven simultaneously.
“‘Quicksand’ is the ‘oddball’ on our new album Melt, but it’s also the song we are probably most excited about,” the duo say in press notes. “Sounding mostly electronic, Quicksand is made from our sampled guitars that have been manipulated and repurposed in a new and interesting way. We were able to expand our sonic palette and try new things with what makes up a Whimsical song. Initially we were worried that ‘Quicksand’ wouldn’t fit alongside our other songs, but once we realized that our melodies and Krissy’s heartfelt lyrics were in place, we knew that we had created something special and any concerns we had faded away. We’ve waited a long time for people to finally hear ‘Quicksand’ and we hope they are as excited about it as we are.”
Formed back in 2016, JOVM mainstays No Swoon — Tasha Abbott (vocals, guitar) and Zack Nestel-Patt (synths, baas) — have developed an established sound that sees the pair meshing elements of dream pop, shoegaze, post-punk and ethereal wave through two releases, 2018’s EP 1 and 2019’s ’s Jorge Elbrecht-produced, self-titled full-length debut.
Much like countless others across the world, the COVID-19 pandemic, threw the the lives and plans of the JOVM mainstays into disarray” their planned tour to support their full-length debut had to be scrapped entirely. After spending the past five years in Brooklyn, the duo relocated to Los Angeles. And understandably, spending over a year in quarantine-imposed isolation forced the pair to step back and think about their lives in new ways — and to examine the intricacies of going through life as we know it.
The duo managed fro released a couple of singles during the pandemic, including the Siamese Dream era Smashing Pumpkins meets Slowdive like Again,” a single that marked massive, life-altering transitions for the duo: their aforementioned return back West paired with a reworked sound and approach.
As the JOVM mainstays explained in press notes, “This song is about when days begin and end with no real definition. About being stuck in the loop of our life and we can’t get out. It may come to no surprise that this song was written early on in the Pandemic. Before everything shut down, I (Tasha) was constantly moving: work, music, sleep, etc., and being at stand-still all of a sudden was definitely strange (on top of the already terror and stress of the pandemic).”
Interestingly, “Again” will appear on the band’s highly-anticipated sophomore album Take Your Time. Slated for an April 8, 2022 release, the lion share of Take Your Time was recorded by the band in Western Massachusetts, amidst the isolation of pandemic related quarantine — with the band’s Nestel-Patt taking up engineering duties during the initial recording sessions. The album features guest spots from longtime collaborator Jon Smith (drums), along with Furrows‘ and Olden Yolk’s Peter Wagner (guitar). Jake Aaron contributed some additional production and Chris Coady mixed the album, pushing the material into something otherworldly.
Take Your Time‘s material was conceived and written during both personal and global transitions and turmoil — but while celebrating a joyful acceptance of the paths that have lead each of us to where we are right now. About the album’s themes, No Swoon’s Abbott contends, “We are so hard on ourselves for decisions we made years ago. I have plenty of regrets, but I also see it as a process, and it’s ok that I didn’t realize the hopes and dreams of 20-year old me. What did she know anyways?”
Last month, I wrote about Take Your Time‘s first official single “Besides.” Centered around Abbott’s plaintive and breathy falsetto, a propulsive rhythm section and intertwined buzzing power chords and twinkling, reverb-drenched synths, “Besides” sonically nods at Beach House, but as the band’s Tasha Abbott explains, the song was inspired by a wild, enigmatic dream she once had in which, while exploring a mysterious cavern, she stumbled upon a secret apparently blissful cult with ambiguous intentions.
“I have some really weird dreams,” Abbott said in press notes. “They are often these wide-ranging sci-fi stories. This song is part 2 of the same dream that inspired a song on our first record ‘Don’t wake up, wake up‘. That dream had ended with meandering into a cave that turned out to be the home to a cult where everyone looked the same and seemed very ‘happy.’ Though, obviously they were not very happy because it was a cult. I eventually got out.”
“Wait to See,” Take Your Time‘s brooding third and latest single is centered around a maelstrom of synths, driving percussion, blown out bass with Abbott’s ethereal vocals floating over the mix, to create a mesmerizing song that’s simultaneously bruising and dreamily introspective.
“This song is about growing up,” No Swoon’s Abbott says in press notes. “ We’re talking to our younger selves who had very specific dreams and ideas of how our lives would pan out. But as we all know, the hopes and dreams we had at 15 are usually not our realities when we grow up.. We could look back and be upset that we didn’t become who we had hoped to be, or we could relish the new ideas and new dreams, and be ok with where we are. This song is about how looking back now, you can see the path that led to where we are now and how we wish we could tell our younger selves to be kind to who we will grow up to be.”
