‘Bling’ is the latest single from Hyperlust, a jagged pop hit which manages to not only bathe the listener in a glowing summer chill but also challenge the concept of capital-T Truth in reality and the mind, answering its own mystical questions with the only fair motto of our times. I don’t know.

“What do you mean?

I don’t know

Just a sign of science

Just a sign of science

What did you see?

Eyes to the floor

And if I do not understand it, was it real?

What do you mean?

I don’t know”

Hyperlust will be released on the 31st May and you can pre-order it now from Bandcamp. If, like me, you are new to the band, be sure to go back and explore their previous releases.

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I’ve reproduced all of this from his Bandcamp page because it feels a suitable way to convey my thoughts on the album. Much of the garage/indie rock on Bandcamp is quick and loose, glorious in it’s sloppiness, the transient goodtime of a laidback slacker summer encapsulated in lo-fi music. The name (vaguely summer-y) and artwork (quite summer-y) meant that I judged this as another of those albums. What I found was something different. Something tighter, more careful. Something that seems a labour of love rather than a throwaway let’s-have-a-good-time-while-we-are-alive pop-punk record.

The result is what I’d imagine a genetic experiment involving Justin Vernon and Josh Arnoudse (of You Won’t) might produce. Heartfelt lo-fi rock with a folky edge, songs simple enough to sing along to but nuanced enough to demand you return.

(If I sound like I’m waxing lyrical then I don’t much care).

The album was released on tape via Thundercloud Records, although that was back in April and they have all been sold. Blame us for being so late. You can instead pick up a digital copy for whatever you can afford right here.

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The album is a beautiful one. The sound (prehaps aided by the meadow artwork) evokes a summer wilderness. Not a harsh desert or tropical forest, but rather a sweeping landscape of sepiatone hills and fragrant grasses. For the ‘dream folk’ label, the vocals are very clear and I think it’s fair to say the driving force of each song. The result is somewhere along the lines of First Aid Kit, Sharon van Etten, and Mountain Man if they were based somewhere in the past; luscious voices crooned over smooth and gentle tracks that meander by like childhood summers (in the track ‘New Love’ they even proclaim ’Summer drags on, these sunsets keep on coming’).

Valley is an album of escapism, a record that allows you to slip out of whatever grey scenery that surrounds you and into a world of golden sunshine and gentle winds. There is a sense of sadness here too, as if both you and they know that such a time and place is hard to find and all too fleeting when you do.

You can buy the album on Bandcamp and the single ‘Valley’ is available for free. be sure to check out their debut album The Living Room from which the video below is taken.

West from Magic! Magic Roses on Vimeo.

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Not An Exit is dreamy in more ways than one. The overall sound could be pegged at ‘Dream Pop’ and filed next to Lemolo or Fiona Apple, although the slighly fuzzy and minimal instrumentation conveys a slow serene imagining rather than some vividly ethereal fantasy. The result is a collection of songs that sound confidently crafted and fully controlled, holding the hand of the listener through beautiful oneiric landscape they have created. The EP bubbles away until (my personal favourite) ‘Shipwreck’ dares to break through a little more with it’s desperate refrain. It drags the listener back from the comfortable meander they had enjoying presents the always-just-masked emotion for all to see. It’s a cleverly put together piece that deserves to be played in order.

The other aspect of dreaminess on Not An Exit runs through the lyrics. On ‘Not An Exit’ Brown sings ’Wake up darlin’, wake up to a lucid dream’ and the line heralds the themes across the album. On each song there are references to dreams; Maybe not bona fide nighttime-in-bed dreams, but psychological constructs that we all experience. Imaginings and fantasies, fears and worries, they are all running through these songs to produce something that is paradoxically very real (as in recognisable) while also being fictitious (in that we have no way of directly observing or measuring them).

The fact that I’ve looked so deeply (too deeply?) into these songs is a testament to this duo. They create music that demands repeated listens and makes you think a little more than maybe you would normally, which for a Dream Pop band (a genre which is often focussed solely on nice sounds as a form of escapism) is no mean feat. Buy the EP on Bandcamp where you can also download the title track free of charge.

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Listen to the first track from the album below and order it on Bandcamp. If you buy the album, make sure you order the beautiful map which indicates the geographical origins of each song. A great idea with a lovely result.

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