Tag: dream pop

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: Uppermost Performs Reminder in Paris

Now, if you’ve bee frequenting this site over the course of the past month or so, you may recall that I previously wrote about Behdad Netjabakshe, Paris, France-based electronic music producer and electronic music artist, best known as Uppermost. Netjabakshe has received international material for material released through a number of renowned labels including Sony BMG, Ministry of Sound, BugEyed Records, Starlight Records and his own Uppwind Records. Adding to a growing internationally recognized profile, Netjabakshe’s “Equivocal” landed at number 3 on Beatport’s electro house charts back in 2009, his Biscuit Factory EP ranked first on the JunoDownload electro-house charts — and he’s had singles playlist by renowned artists and producers such as Tiesto, Armin van Buren and Steve Angello. Additionally, he’s received attention for remixing the work of Daft Punk, deadmau5, Burial, Crystal Castles, Jonathan Coulton, Syl Johnson, Congorock and countless others.

Netjabakshe’s forthcoming full-length effort Origins 2011-2016 is a massive 23 song LP that features some of the French electronic music artist and producer’s most popular songs such as “Flashback,” “Beautiful Light,” “Reminder” and “Mistakes” as well as a ton of new material including the shimmering and anthemic M83-channeling single “Thousand Colors,” that possessed a bit of muscle and forcefulness. The French electronic music artist and producer recently released live concert footage performing the cinematic, shimmering and funky “Reminder” in Paris. Interestingly, while the retro-futuristic gently nods at both M83 and Pink Floyd, the song manages to sound as though it should be part of the soundtrack of a sci-fi thriller.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Dali-esque, Dire Straits “Money For Nothing” Inspired Visuals for Jordan Burchel’s “Coffee Breath”

Vowel Sounds’ latest single “Coffee Breath” will further cement the Gainesville, FL-based multi-instrumentalist and producer’s burgeoning reputation for carefully crated rock with deeply introspective lyrics that sonically draws from psych rock and dream pop — although in this case, “Coffee Breath” much like the work of Drakkar Nowhere sounds as though it also draws from 70s AM rock as Burchel’s crooning is paired with shuffling drumming and subtly bluesy psych rock guitar chords. But just underneath the surface is a subtly mischievous sense of irony.

Animated by Tristan Whitehall at Squiggle Dot, the recently released video for “Coffee Breath” playfully nods at Dire Straits’ legendary and envelope pushing “Money for Nothing” but with an insouciance to the proceedings as the video follows an anthropomorphic coffee cup as it journeys through a Dali-esque desert to a surrealist living room and back to the desert — and during the journey, the coffee cup encounters a snake seductively wrapping itself around an anthropomorphic apple, an hourglass with a skull from it as the coffee cup holds another coffee cup and later drinks from it. It’s surreal but with a gloriously mischievous glee.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

With the release of their debut single “I Knew You,” the Newcastle, UK-based quartet Seeing Hands, comprised of Kev Curran (vocals, guitar), Nick Hodgson (lead guitar), Jon Varty (bass) and Liam Guillan (drums) have received airplay from the likes of BBC Radio 6 and XFM, as well as attention across the blogosphere for a shimmering guitar pop/dream pop sound that sounds as though it owed a debt to the 4AD Records sound and to contemporary acts like DIIV and others, complete with a gorgeous yet wistful sense of melody as you’ll hear on their latest single “It’s True.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: Twin Limb’s Gorgeous Cover of Mazzy Star’s “Fade Into You” with My Morning Jacket’s Jim James and Bo Koster

Currently, the Louisville-based trio are touring with My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, as he supports his recently released solo effort Eternally Even as both James’ opener and as his backing band. And while on tour with James, at Louisville’s Iroquois Amphitheater, the members of Twin Limb, along with James and James’ My Morning Jacket’s Bo Koster performed a gorgeous cover of Mazzy Star’s beloved and haunting “Fade Into You” that varies slightly from the original as Twin Limb’s Lacey Guthrie is backed by Jim James vocals during the first verse or two and the first chorus, before switching to James leading and Guthrie backing. The live footage was shot by Dave Boone and Chad Heavenly and later edited by Boone.

As Twin Limb’s Maryliz Bender says in press notes on the cover and on the video, “I’ll never forget the first time I saw Mazzy Star’s ‘Fade Into You’ music video. I was 10 years old, sneaking peeks of MTV at my grandparent’s house. It was the first song that hit me right in the heart. I don’t know if its a nostalgia thing, or some other kind of magic, but it is the song that will always melt my heart on command. I had to hold back those emotions while playing it with Jim and Bo on the Louisville Iroquois Amphitheater stage. What a beautiful moment.”

New Audio by William Ruben Helms

Splitting their time between London, UK, Gothenburg, Sweden and Berlin, Germany the Noosa, Australia-born duo Star Kendrick and Toma Benjamin can trace the origins of their musical project Geowulf to a friendship that started when both Kendrick and Benjamin were in their teens; however, the duo’s musical collaboration began when Kendrick, whose parents were also professional musicians, began seriously pursuing music three years ago and enlisted her friend to flesh out the sound of her early demos.

With the release of the debut single “Saltwater” earlier this year, the duo quickly received attention across the blogosphere and elsewhere — the single reached over 1 million Spotify streams, reached the Hype Machine‘s top ten and peaked at #4 on the Spotify US viral charts. And building upon the buzz that “Saltwater” received, the Australian-born duo’s latest single “Don’t Talk About You” subtly expands upon the sound that first caught the blogosphere’s attention as Kendrick’s ethereal and hauntingly gorgeous vocals are paired with lushly shimmering and jangling guitar chords and a 70s AM rock vibe. Now, while some have said that the duo’s sound evokes Fleetwood Mac, to my ears I also hear quite a bit of Mazzy Star; but at the core of the song is a lovelorn ache — and the sort of ache over something that the song’s narrator recognizes will be awful for her but wants anyway.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: Twin Limb’s Ethereal and Sensual, Shoegazer Cover of Can’s “Yoo Doo Right”

Interestingly, to celebrate the release of their full-length effort, the trio of Bender, Ratterman and Guthrie released a swaggering, moody, sensual and shoegazer rock-leaning cover of the legendary German experimental rock/prog rock cover of Can’s “You Doo Right” that the Louisville, KY-based trio recorded live in their studio — and as you can hear, their cover possesses a towering yet cool, self-assuredness.

As the band’s Kevin Ratterman explained to the folks at CLRVYNT: “When I was building my recording studio, La La Land, Can was one of the constant soundtracks blazing through the speakers day in and out. The meditative, flowing, ever-changing rhythms and melodies were a perfect backdrop for [not only] the monotony of construction, but the excitement of building something where so much creativity was about to be captured. When Twin Limb was a duo before I joined the band, they came in to La La Land to record an album not long after construction was finished. Through working on their record, I most excitedly joined the band and I immediately heard similarities between Maryliz [Bender]’s tribal drum style and the song ‘Yoo Doo Right’ once we started working on their album. I had a fantasy of us doing a cover of that song, and was so excited to hear both their voices together singing it; Michael Karoli’s guitar playing has always been an influence on me, and [I] was so excited to play those anthemic guitar hooks. It’s scary to cover a song by a band that carries so much integrity among some of the most influential experimental musicians of our time, but the first time we played that song, it was so apparent it was going to be so free and fun to play live, especially in a small room packed to the gills of sweaty human creature people.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Mind-Bending, Psychedelic Visuals and Sounds of Twin Limb’s “The Weather”

“The Weather” is the latest single off the Louisville, KY’s soon-to-be-released effort Haplo and much like the other material I’ve written about over the years, it possess a gauzy, dreamy quality — as though the song’s narrator has just been awakened from a pleasant reverie; however, where the previous singles were towering, “The Weather” is much more understated as undulating and droning keys are paired with shimmering guitar chords played through gentle amounts and reverb and sultry pop belter-like vocals in a song that focuses on a growing sense of anticipation and aching longing.

The recently released music video employs the use of kaleidoscopic filters and effects to create a trippy and mind-bending psychedelia that further evokes the song’s gauzy feel.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

Currently comprised of founding member Brazilian-born and now Los Angeles, CA-based Samira Winter (vocals), Matt Hogan (guitar), Justine Brown (bass), and Garren Orr (drums), indie dream pop/shoegaze act Winter can trace their origins to when Winter along with the band’s co-founder Nolan Ely started the band in Boston. After the release of their 2012 debut effort Daydreaming EP, Winter relocated to Los Angeles where she recruited the band’s current lineup to flesh out the project’s sound.

As a newly formed  quartet, the members of the band went into the studio to write and record their full-length debut Supreme Blue Dream, which Lolipop Records released last year. With material written and sung in both English and Brazilian Portuguese, the album thematically was designed to connect the listener to their inner child while writing shimmering and ethereal pop that interestingly enough sounds as though it could have been released by 4AD Records.

The band is working on their forthcoming sophomore effort Ethereality while making a number of tour dates, which you can check out below. But interestingly enough, the Los Angeles dream pop act’s latest single “Dreaming” was originally written in 2013 and was presumed lost when the band’s laptop was stolen on tour. However, the members of the band recovered a version of a song found on a backup hard drive — and the single will further cement the band’s growing reputation for crafting shimmering and ethereal pop in which Winter’s ethereal melodies are paired with shimmering guitar chords played through reverb pedal, a sinuous bass line and propulsive drumming. Sonically, the song evokes being woken from a pleasant and revelatory reverie.

Check out the aforementioned tour dates below.

Tour Dates:

October 18 Los Angeles, CA – Bootleg Theater *
October 21 San Francisco, CA – Slims #
November 5 San Diego, CA – Blonde Bar ~
November 6 Fullerton, CA – Continental Room ~

* = w/ Ducktails, Ablebody (Record Release), Wyatt Blair
# = w/ Picture Atlantic
~ = w/ So Many Wizards

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

If you’ve been frequenting this site over the past two or three months or so, you’ve likely come across a couple of posts about Chasms, a San Francisco, CA-based duo comprised of Jess Labrador and Shannon Madden that specializes in crafting sparse, minimalist (and moody) dirges that feature Labrador’s hauntingly ethereal vocals accompanied by her shimmering guitar work paired with propulsive and pummeling drum programming, swirling electronics and bursts of feedback and industrial clang and clatter — and in some way their sound and songwriting approach draws from shoegaze, drone, dream pop, doom metal and ambient electronica simultaneously.

Now, over the course of the past couple of months, the duo have released two singles off their soon-to-be-released full-length debut On The Legs of Love Purified — the slow-burning and smoky “We’ll Go,” which under the seemingly placid surface reveals a sense of unease and discomfort and the shimmering and gauzy “Black Ice.” The album’s third and latest single “Beyond Flesh” much like the album’s first single “Black Ice” sounds as though it could have been released during 4AD Records heyday as the duo pairs Labrador’s ethereal wails with shimmering power chords, layers of stormy feedback and thundering drum programming — all feed through a bit of reverb. And while stunningly beautiful, the song possesses an aching yearning.

The duo will be embarking on a tour through October and November, which will include a November 16, 2016 stop at Brooklyn’s Shea Stadium. Check out tour dates below.

Tour Dates

10.07 Portland, OR @ Lovecraft %  
10.08 Seattle, WA @ Blue Moon
10.09 Eugene, WA @ Wandering Goat 
10.10 Sacramento @ Press Club # 
10.11 San Francisco, CA @ The Knockout ^ 
10.13 La Puente, CA @ Bridgetown DIY ~ 
10.14 San Diego, CA @ The Whistle Stop *
10.15 Long Beach, CA @ 4th St. Vine 
10.16 Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo (Part Time Punks) + 
10.29 Berkeley, CA @ KALX (Live Session + Interview)
11.08 Indianapolis, IN @ State St. Pub
11.15 Providence, RI @ Machines with Magnets
11.16 Brooklyn, NY @ Shea Stadium =
11.19 Chicago, IL @ TBA


% w/ Sean Pierce, Patricia Hall 
# w/ Odonis Odonis 
^ w/ Silver Shadows, Sirena Victima, DJ Nako & Cash Askew
~ w/ Second Still 
* w/ Black Marble 
+ w/ Black Marble, Ritual Howls 
 = w/ Holy Wave 
> w/ Merchandise, Gun Outfit

 

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Darkly Surreal Visuals and Shimmering Shoegazer Rock of Dead Leaf Echo’s “Lemonheart”

“Lemonheart,” will further cement their burgeoning reputation for crafting lush and shimmering shoegazer-like dream pop in the vein of RIDE, Swervedriver and Slowdive — or in other words, layers upon layers of shimmering guitar chords played through gentle amounts of reverb, a propulsive motorik-like groove paired with ethereal and wistful vocals.

The recently released video for “Lemonheart” employs a surreal and nightmarish logic as it features a beautiful young woman selling lemonade at a child’s lemonade stand, cutting lemons for lemonade, and occasionally sucking on a lemon when she encounters a man dressed as a lemon mascot, who’s devastated upon seeing the carnage inflicted on his fellow lemons. Running away, he encounters a female lemon who captures his attention and they return to get revenge on our lemonade stand girl.

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Lower Dens’ Moody and Gorgeous Visuals and Sounds for “Real Thing”

The recently released video was produced by SSION and employs the use of hazy early 80s synth pop videos as the song has Hunter performing in an empty studio as the video cuts to hazier and hot florescent lit footage of couples and other folks dancing at a club, and of Hunter playing guitar and singing, sometimes in different colored suits. Interestingly, Hunter sings the song’s most devastating lines to herself in a mirror, which emphasizes the song’s loneliness while also emphasizing the fact that the song’s narrator is faced with a difficult decision.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Ryan McGroarty, Cheylene Murphy and Aimee Williamson, the Belfast, Northern Ireland-based synth pop/dream pop trio Beauty Sleep have quickly received attention from The Irish Times, The Sun, several blogs and airplay from BBC Radio 1 for a sound that’s been compared to Washed Out, Teen Daze and Summer Heart. And as you’ll hear on the trio’s latest single “Living Right,” you’ll see why as the trio pairs gorgeous and ethereal melodies with shimmering synths, reverb-filled guitars, a propulsive rhythm section and an upbeat, anthemic hook in a carefully crafted song that’s summery and extremely radio-friendly — but with a subtle and underlying wistfulness at its core.

 

 

 

 

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: Beach House Performing “Rough Song” on Charlie Rose

Interestingly, although released last October, Thank Your Lucky Stars was recorded during the same two month period as its predecessor Depression Cherry and continued an ongoing collaboration between the band and co-producer Chris Coady. Naturally, both albums build upon similar aesthetics, making them inseparably companion albums. Now you may remember that I recently wrote about “The Traveller” off Thank Your Lucky Stars. The duo were recently on Charlie Rose’s show where they performed a gorgeous and aching version of “Rough Song.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

With the release of two critically applauded EPs, We Are Sound and Everything You Imagine Is Real, the New York-based electro pop duo Corbu received praise from the likes of NYLON, Stereogum, The Guardian, NME and others for a sound that’s heavily influenced by the Warp Records roster, sci-fi imagery,  psychedelia and their own dreams. Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past couple of weeks you may recall that I wrote about the cinematic “Battles,” one of the first singles off the duo’s highly-anticipated, soon-to-be released, full-length debut effort Crayon Soul; a track that has the band pairing a soaring and anthemic hook with a shimmering and breezy melody and plaintive vocals in a way that’s reminiscent to Moonbabies and M83.

Crayon Soul‘s latest single “Better Better Off” is a lush and shimmering psych pop, psych rock track that has the duo pairing angular guitar chords fed through gentle reverb and delay pedals, layers upon layers of gorgeous harmonies, shimmering synth cascades,  a soaring and anthemic hook, and a propulsive rhythm section in a song that sounds indebted to trippy 60s psych rock as much as it does to the likes of In Ghost Colours-era Cut Copy and the dream pop of the aforementioned Moonbabies, Summer Heart – but with a palpable bittersweet wistfulness under the song’s breezy surface.