Melbournite Thomas Lee works under the name Oceans and his new single ‘Break My Fall’ is an immersive and delicious track with subtle switches between a shoegaze drone and a dreamy pop fugue. Lee’s voice haunts in the distance beneath a simmering razor-sharp guitar and synth wash, infused with a detached melancholia and indelible melodies.
Lee says of the track:
Break My Fall was a last minute addition to the EP which came out from a jam prior to the studio sessions. Normally I’d write songs in the small hours of the night, obsessing over every detail so it was incredibly liberating having this song come about organically. The song actually started out as a joke with my drummer but kept coming back to that chorus riff and eventually wrote a song around it. The song is a real throwback to the classic shoegaze sound of the 90s with fuzzed out guitars, whispery vocals and simple but timeless snare fills. Break my fall is about having someone in your life support you through your ups and downs and makes sense of the world despite all your insecurities.
The result is something that is glacial and beautiful: soaked in reverb and regret with many shimmering layers that float out the speakers and ensnare you:
The track (available to download and stream here) is off Ocean’s forthcoming EP ‘Come So Far’ released through Ditto on 27 May 2021. You can catch Oceans in Melbourne launching the EP at the Tote – details here.
Feature Photograph: Michael Grace Hunder
