Browsing Tag

Dream-Pop

MidAmerican Elevator are dream-pop love fools in their latest single, Ivy

Posted on 27 September 2022

Ethereal enough to give you goosebumps, the Chicago indie-rock band MidAmerican Elevator’s latest single, Ivy, is an idyllically evocative masterpiece through the entwining of Cranberries-Esque vocal harmonies and artful percussion that chimes through the relentlessly mellifluous guitars.

Lyrically, Ivy captures the retrospective turmoil of realising that things weren’t as they seemed due to the misleading actions of a protagonist that couldn’t keep up the façade of charming perfection. Ivy makes it clear how much aural evolutionary room stands between The Cardigans’ Lovefool and this twilight-lit spectre of sweet naivety that the world would be infinitely more insufferable without.

Check out MidAmerican Elevator’s latest single, Ivy, on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

newmath traverses loss in the noisy dream pop discord of his latest single, Without You

Posted on 8 September 2022

As someone who will always hold a candle for the shoegaze pioneers, I will eternally be enthralled by 21st-century experimental iterations of the genre. newmath, the creative project of Chris Fish, certainly didn’t disappoint with the noisy dream pop discord in his latest single, Without You.

The lo-fi to the core production goes heavy on the sludgy effects – being from Seattle, it would be rude not to – but Without You is far more in Grandaddy’s arena rather than your definitive Seattle sound icons. The shimmeringly bright vulnerability of the release is incandescently sweet. Without you may be a song of mourning, but notably, no love has been lost.

With his forthcoming album, BLOOM, due for release on September 9th, save a spot on your radar.

The official music video for Without You premiered on August 29th. Check it out on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Dream in the existential poetry of Vukovar’s meeting of death pop and post-punk, ‘Place to Rest’

Posted on 25 July 2022

Taken from their critically acclaimed album, The Body Abdicator, Vukovar’s standout single, Place to Rest, is a neo-gothic dream. Laden with poetry, “death becomes the absence of the self/ it’s all in the mind”, shoegazey reverb, and strident Jack Ladder-Esque electronic percussion to feed energy into the expressive ennui of the darkened synth-pop track.

In their own words, their 2022 LP is a ‘metaphysical and esoteric wasteland disguised as a pop album’. If the IQ of an artist got them to the top of the charts, Vukovar would be unstoppable in their ascent. Anyone with an affinity for existential philosophy, Echo and the Bunnymen, House of Love and The Chameleons won’t want to let this luminously talented act slip them by. One hit and the swoon-worthy single will affably haunt you for a lifetime.

Check out the official video for Place to Rest via YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

VAN ELST – OU ES-TU: Confessionally Resonant Dark Dream Pop

Posted on 22 July 2022

After joining Peter Murphy on his 40th-anniversary tour with his previous band, Desert Mountain Tribe, the Dutch producer, songwriter and drummer VAN ELST focused on crafting dreamy, dark feats of electro, which allow the emotion to outweigh the sum of the sonic parts.

The hooky yet ethereal vocal layers in his single, OU ES-TU, draw you into the monochromatic tones with the grip of quicksand as you sink into the raw confessional lyricism. The ability to expose the most wounded parts of the soul and do it in stylistically reticent form is the mark of a true artist.

As someone who discovered Desert Mountain Tribe on that Peter Murphy tour and was transfixed by the psychedelic cadence of the rhythms, I can’t tell you how stoked I am to see VAN ELST coming into his synth-carved melancholic own.

OU ES-TU will officially release on July 22nd. Check it out for yourselves via SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Enjoy the high life with Emil’s dreamy synthpop sonic story ‘Up in the Hills’

Posted on 6 July 2022

Escape reality with Emil’s latest feat of fusionist alchemy, Up in the Hills. At just 18 years old, the Sydney, Australia-hailing artist has already perfected the art of crafting soundscapes that scarcely seem of this world.

With the artful originality, which pairs dream pop with nuances of jazz and RnB, on par with the likes of Brian Eno and Kate Bush, Emil set himself apart from the rest with his hazy, smoky, summer serenade. The best part? The complete lack of pretence while the narrative lyrics are soulfully being run through. Up in the Hills is pure sonic expressive bliss.

Up in the Hills was officially released on June 26th, 2022. Check it out for yourselves on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Take Graffiti Welfare’s lead in the soporifically ambient soundscape, Just Follow

Posted on 14 June 2022

Take Graffiti Welfare’s lead in their latest blip of transiently therapeutic bliss, Just Follow. The alternative artist takes the cosmic pop trend deeper into space than Bowie ever dared through a psychedelically smooth lens for the ultimate meditative effect.

The inventive samples lend themselves to the Avant-Garde nature of the release, while the dreamy, almost depersonalised, vocals aid the soporific effect of the atmospheric ambience.

As someone who grew up on a steady diet of Shoegaze records and was exposed to David Lynch soundtracks, I can safely say that Graffiti Welfare’s aptitude for artful electronica and cinematic gravitas is unmatched by most.

Just Follow is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Drift away with Milk Bar Gang’s ethereal art-pop lullaby, Ozzie Ostriches Dream

Posted on 8 June 2022
OPEN by Milk Bar Gang

Taken from their debut EP, Open, the Milk Bar Gang’s standout single, Ozzie Ostriches Dream, is an ethereal lullaby; constructed to subdue you into an art-pop trance.

Any fans of Nico, PJ Harvey and Suicide will find just as much to favour in Ozzie Ostriches Dream, which wears influence from the 80s new wave, shoegaze, and cosmic pop as motifs affixed to the sheer originality that has been soporifically poured into this feat of transcendent avant-garde alchemy.

The reverb on the whispered vocals, the ring of the delayed guitars and the glassy aesthetic of the track all contribute to the intricately distinctive appeal that is sure to see the duo go far in 2022 and beyond.

Ozzie Ostriches Dream is now available to stream and purchase on Bandcamp.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

London’s Lemonade Sin defied gravity with their elevated dream pop single, Melanie Nods

Posted on 7 June 2022
Melanie Nods by Lemonade Sin

Following the saturated-in-tape-delay indie dream pop intro, Lemonade Sin’s latest single, Melanie Nods, unfolds as a transcendentally playful aural crumble of the definitive UK sounds from the 80s to the 00s. The hazy shoegaze textures, chilling nods to post-punk and the Manic Street Preaches-Esque riffs in the middle eight pull together to form a sonic trajectory that you will want to follow time and time again.

With vocal reminiscences to Joy Division’s Atmosphere and the Human League’s Mirror Man happening simultaneously, Lemonade Sin is for every 80s fan out there looking for artists innovative enough to pull new aesthetics out of the synths, unmistakable percussion, and vocal layering.

Melanie Nods is now available to stream and purchase on Bandcamp.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Middle Child & YHWHHH have released their semi-lucid lovesong, Meditate

Posted on 28 May 2022

If you are anything like me and you get the majority of your sanctity in aural form, the dreamy guitar-laden electronica single, Meditate, from the producer, Middle Child and guitarist, YHWHHH, will make for the perfect cosy and compassionate home.

With the vocals dripping with the Elliott Smith effect, the accordance of the choral reverb-swathed guitars, which will make any Slowdive fans’ hearts skip a beat, and the soft electronic layers, Meditate moves past catharsis instrumentally.

Lyrically, the single unfolds as a semi-lucid love song, full of proclamations of tenderly sincere affection which rival the sweet nothings that slip into lovers’ ears between consciousness and sleep. With millions of streams between them, something tells me that Middle Child & YHWHHH will be unstoppable from here on out.

Meditate is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Tree Giants bring unity in trend with their dreamy evocative firestorm, Better Together

Posted on 26 May 2022
Tree Giants

The electronica duo Tree Giants, consisting of Oklahoma City’s Daniel Chrisman and Israel Lee, have released another compassionately synthy-sweet dream-pop hit, Better Together. As blissful as Beach House, as momentous as the euphonic hits left behind in Avicii’s wake, it’s a triumph in genre-defying euphoria.

The message of unity behind the spacey sonic elements may be simple but through the honeyed indie RnB vocal lines, reverb-swathed synths and oscillating basslines that surge through enrapturing the progressions, it’s as profound as anything Shakespeare had to say in his time. It’s a stunningly sincere reminder that connection is a fundamental part of the human experience and in dark days, those olive branches can bring us to a new plateau of existence.

Hear Better Together for yourselves here.

Review by Amelia Vandergast