dream pop
Album Review: Kidsmoke – A Vision in the Dark
There is an ethereal majestic sheen that permeates the new album from Kidsmoke. It may well stem from the wild and beautiful landscapes of northern Wales, where the band comes from, but nonetheless sparkles and glitters like a golden thread throughout ‘A Vision in the Dark’. Every track on this vital album is imbued with …
Track: Hey Elbow – Nurture/Aptitude
Swedish dream-pop outfit Hey Elbow are back once again to share another wonderfully broad and ethereal offering, “Nurture/Aptitude”, lifted from their forthcoming full-length “We Three” due 18th September via Adrian Recordings. With an almost 2 minute intro of floaty choral voices looped together. The tracks kicks into life with rapid drums and dreamy synths interwoven with the …
Track: Song Sung – The Mind’s Eye
Hazy waves of reverb and chorus soak through the new song from twin sister duo Song Sung to create a dream pop epic that is quite mesmerising. There are Beach Boy harmonies, layers of instrumentation that are sunny and bright despite the achingly melancholic tone and distant, haunting vocals. Of the themes of the song, …
Track: The Ghost of Helags – Chemistry
Ghosts of Helag have released an absolutely gorgeous slice of sweet synth pop in their new track ‘Chemistry’. Layers of bubbling synth stream under melancholic, mesmerising vocals, evoking a sense of a dreamy dark landscape and endless, restless movement. Indeed, according to singer Teresa Woischiski, the track was born out of a night time journey: …
See: Mermaidens – Bastards
New Zealand’s fabulous Mermaidens have just release a video for the song ‘Bastards’ off their album ‘Look Me In The Eye’, out now through Flying Nun Records. ‘Bastards’ is a dark brooding sleek song immeshed in melancholia and regre,t with a serpentine bass and a haunting refrain: I’ve got bruises from being too close. Mermaidens …
EP: The Know – wearetheknow
The Know consist of husband and wife duo Daniel Knowles and Jennifer Farmer. Knowles had previously worked as a producer and guitarist for UK shoegaze band Amusement Parks on Fire. This pedigree shows. Their new EP, ‘wearetheknow’, out now through those purveyors of extremely high quality music, Shore Dive Records is an indelible, sparkling release that …
Premiere: Garsa – The Devil’s Own
After releasing a stunning debut earlier this year, (‘Jimmy sour highs‘) solo artist Martin Garside, operating under the name Garsa, is back with another perfect slice of dream pop/ shoegaze in ‘The Devil’s Own’, which Backseat Mafia is proud to premiere. This is a beautiful release, infused with an air of wistfulness and yearning and …
Track: Moon Panda – Slow Drive
Moon Panda follow up last month’s delicious ‘Rick F***in Dalton’ with another tasty slice of ethereal dream pop with the single ‘Slow Drive’. Singer Maddie Myers’s voice floats and glides over a bubbling surface of shard-like guitars and synths, mesmerising and hypnotic: ‘Slow Drive’ captures that hard to remember feeling of roaming freely along country …
Track: Pizza Daddy – Too many boyfriends
Pizza Daddy is the new project of London dream-pop band BOYS founding members Ross Pearce & Mike Stothard who are taking a break after 5 years, and doing something different instead. The band has a new single Too Many Boyfriends on May 15th, about which the pair explain “The song was written about a friend …
Track: Kidsmoke – The Bluest You
With a spectral guitar intro and the yearning vocals, Kidsmoke’s new single ‘The Bluest You’ is a dreamy smooth pleasure of the highest degree. There is a celestial shimmer to the song – it shines and sparkles while simultaneously creating an air of pastoral melancholia. An air that clearly reflects its lyrical themes, of which …