Sydney’s Dots & Grids have just released a double whammy of videos for the most delightful pair of tracks off their forthcoming EP ‘What Happens To Friendships’ due out on 26 March 2021. With legend Wayne Connolly (Died Pretty, Underground Lovers, The Vines, Youth Group, The Paper Kites) behind the production desk, you know there’s going to be something special.
If classifications were helpful, Grids & Dots come from a twee pop/C86 fold – with a hallmark delicacy and acute sense of melody. The two songs released for a video treatment are two expressions of beautifully delivered dream pop delights – a low-fi sensibility that exudes unparalleled warmth and intimacy, wrapped in cotton wool and a sense of youthful innocence and wonder.
First track, ‘Suzy Says’, is a dreamy, floating track with tinkling, gentle guitars and celestial harmonies. It’s a reflective, sparkling mesmerising song that drips with the languid summer heat. The accompanying video, shot around Sydney’s Centennial Park, perfectly captures this bucolic atmosphere – you should see the western skies – with a hint of hopeless romanticism under the bright blue cloudles skies. The band says:
The music video of ‘Suzy Says’ is based on an old friend of Daniel’s that once lived in the Blue Mountains. “There was nothing in the downtown that’s as beautiful as a blue mountains skyline..” she used to say.
We took the idea of this relationship and created a sweet encounter between two strangers. One, a hopeful who is constantly escaping reality and daydreaming about his muse after their haphazard encounter, meanwhile ‘Suzy’ is just lost in her own thoughts and wistful ways. Or is it he that’s dreaming of her being lost in thoughts? A dreamer dreaming about another dreamer?”
The wartm of the song shines though:
Second track, ‘Dishes & Days’ gently presses on the accelerator with a shuffling, insistent beat and crystalline guitars while retaining the sense of wonder and awe. The vocal interplay is gorgeous and the melodies divine with the same inherent warmth and inclusive feel.
Of the video, the band says:
We wanted ‘Dishes and Days’ to be a video journal – showing a snippet of our lives. We live and often rehearse in beautifully diminished Marrickville and we tried to capture and meld the mood of the song with home movie-like shots of our daily activities rehearsing all the time, dinner and art nights with friends, playing gigs and just wandering the streets. Trying to capture a dreamy essence of the song and interpret our lives into that with a hand held camera.
On the strength of these two track, Grids & Dots present a very exciting prospect. This is a band carrying forth the flame from Australian indie predecessors like The Go-Betweens and The Apartments and also bring to mind the style and songwriting craft of New Zealand legends like The Bats or The Chills. Exciting times ahead, indeed.
‘What Happens To Friendships’ can be pre-ordered/saved here.
