Helios - Hollie (Type, 2008)

Utterly divine dreampop beauty.

I've got a couple of albums by the mysterious Helios thanks to regularly raiding Boomkat's sale stock for Type releases.

Helios - aka Keith Keniff aka Goldmund - deals in elegant, austere dreampop instrumental loveliness and 'Hollie' is no exception. Think the most candyflossy of AR Kane's output or a restrained, inward-looking version of Cocteau Twins. Without vocals, obviously.

Download Helios 'Hollie' (shoegaze mp3) (Divshare)

Listening Post - Beach House - Bloom (Sub Pop/Bella Union, 2012)

More swirling loveliness from Beach House.

Beach House's 2010 album 'Teen Dream' was a duskily ethereal slow-burning classic. Soaring melodies amid the gentle ebb and flow of a million guitars refracted in a gauzy hall of mirrors. Superlative dreampop in the vein of Cocteau Twins and AR Kane and a cousin of beautiful Korallreven.

'Bloom' is evolution rather revolution, taking 'Teen Dream' as a starting point, adding more clarity in the vocals but more dreamy sheen in the music's candyfloss of sweet fogginess.

Listen to Beach House 'Bloom' in full (NPR.org)

New Music - Dive - How Long Have You Known (Captured Tracks, 2012)

Swooning, wobbly, shoegazedreampop loveliness.

Partying like it's 1990, Dive are serving up slice after slice of keening, swooning, woozy dreampop-type shoegaze business. After last year's 'Corvalis' single, they've just unleashed another gem in the form of 'How Long Have You Known' which precedes their debut album 'Oshin' in June.

Delightfully driving but wobbly at the same time with layer upon layer of melodic guitar. Nice one for fans of The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, the wonderful Wild Nothing and Blouse.

Or Revolver, The Field Mice or Moose, of course...

Download Dive - How Long Have You Known (indie, shoegaze, dreampop, mp3)

Beach House - Myth (Sub Pop, 2012)

New dreamy loveliness from Beach House.

Very much picking up where the last album left off but a gorgeous swirl of 'Victorialand'-era Cocteau Twins loveliness nonetheless.

Download Beach House 'Myth' (Shoegaze, Dreampop mp3) (via Beach House website)

Kings Of Convenience - I Don't Know What I Can Save You From (Royksopp Remix) (Source, 2001)

Folktronic re-rub. Gorgeous.

The electronic re-setting of this lovely Kings Of Convenience tune works perfectly, adding gentle percussive momentum that gives it a frosty, widescreen feel. Like sitting on a warm train, looking out across the Alps from a window seat.

As the track builds, curlicues of refracted guitar and piano lift it even further in the heavens.

Download Kings Of Convenience 'I Don't Know What I Can Save You From (Royksopp Remix)' (indie, pop, remix, mp3) (Rapidshare)

#indiechristmas - Cocteau Twins 'Frosty The Snowman' (Fontana, 1993)

Something of a departure but their rococo swirl suits the song. 

By 1993, the Cocteau Twins were on a major label and singer Liz Fraser had started singing much more comprehensible words rather than the esperanto of yore. As it was, the songs mainly seemed to be digs at long-term partner Robin Guthrie but on this occasion we got a full-blown recognisable lyric.

As a consquence, it wasn't such a shock to hear them deliver a Christmas EP. 'Snow' paired their warbling take on 'Winter Wonderland' with a swirling, cascading version of 'Frosty The Snowman'. The refractions of guitar and glissandos of vocal suggesting a crystalline snowscape.

Perfect.

Download Cocteau Twins 'Frosty The Snowman' (indie Christmas mp3 download) (Mediafire)

Cocteau Twins 'Dials' (4AD, 1991)

Gentle rarity from the 1991 singles box set.

'Dials' was one of the tracks on the bonus disc in the 1991 singles box set (along with 'The High Monkey Monk' post herebefore). It was released as they were about to leave 4AD for Phonogram's major label headaches.

It's an outtake from the 'Heaven Or Las Vegas' sessions and is a beat-less piece of beauty. It bridges the ambient gorgeousness of the 'Victorialand' album to the richness of the later 4AD period, thereby teaching a generation of Shoegazers what singing should sound like.

Beautiful.

Download Cocteau Twins 'Dials' (indie, Dreampop, Shoegaze mp3 download) (Mediafire)

Devics 'Red Morning' (Bella Union, 2003)

Languid, moody, downtempo melancholy. 


Devics seem to have passed into history now with pianist Dustin O'Halloran now releasing solo albums. They released a sequence of albums on the Bella Union label back before it had its breakout hits with Fleet Foxes et al.

'Red Morning' is a taster of their 'The Stars Of Saint Andrea album which is currently available from the Bella Union online store for very reasonable £5.99.

'Red Morning' starts with warm acoustic guitar and stately drum machine, adding in a yearning female croon and understated bass guitar. A curling synth tone weaves in and out of the mix creating a sense of unease, anticipation.


It's a delicious, oozing slab of moodiness that brings Beach House to mind or maybe the later records of the Cocteau Twins. Very lovely.

Download Devics 'Red Morning' (shoegaze, indie, alternative, mp3 download) (Mediafire)

Pale Saints 'Baby Maker (EP Version)' (4AD, 1990)

Barnstorming, noisy version of the 'In Ribbons' track.

The title track of the 'Half Life EP' was strangely baggy, Pale Saints seemingly trying out someone else's clothes. 'Babymaker', however, is a strident mix of underwater Shoegaze guitar (don't try gazing at your shoes when under-water, kids) and extravagant noise-pop.

The 'In Ribbons' version is less spiky but the EP version has more undeniable momentum, a headlong rush. It's almost falling over itself, careering across a park made of feathers, stopping for a giddy pillow-fight, creating a downy blizzard that harks back to 'She Rides The Waves' from the first EP.

Download Pale Saints 'Babymaker (EP Version)' (Shoegaze, Dreampop mp3) (Mediafire)

A. R. Kane 'Lolita' (4AD, 1987)

Whimsical, breathy dreampop with a Cocteau Twins flourish.

Utterly gorgeous stuff from A.R. Kane. A drifting, blissed out, palliative wash of proto-Shoegaze delight which briefly bursts into a chorus of Cocteau Twins-esque fireworks.

Perhaps unsurprising they get the sound spot-on as the EP was produced by Robin Guthrie.

Gorgeous though.

Download A.R.Kane 'Lolita' (mp3) (Mediafire)

Spoonfed Hybrid - 1936 (Guernica/4AD, 1993)

Spoonfed Hybrid was yet another outlet for the talents of Ian Masters (late of Pale Saints, ESP Summer, Friendly Science Orchestra and an array of other projects). This time he's in cahoots with Chris Trout (AC Temple, Bear and Kilgore Trout) and producer Duncan Wheat.

'1936' opens with the sound of some weird clicking, ticking machine before an elegant piano marks out a stately pace over which Masters delivers choirboy vocals along to a strangely (a)rhythmic rim-shot (it's probably perfectly in-time, it's just that I can't count in 17/14 or something).

The chorus delivers a break from the martial pace, bursting into a gamboling procession of tribal drums, synth strings and a synthetic choir. Towards the end we get a lovely, rich double-bass and piano section which is reminiscent of David Sylvian's 'Blue Of Noon'. It gives way to an angelic choir then melds into a clatter of insistent drums before exiting on a rushing, euphoric high.

'Spoonfed Hybrid' is a great album that marries elegant songwriting with vaulting ambition on the arrangement front. Out of print I believe but a sound ebay investment.

Download Spoonfed Hybrid '1936' (mp3) (Mediafire)

Beach House 'Zebra' (Bella Union/Sub Pop, 2010)

'Zebra' is the opening track of Beach House's splendid 2010 album 'Teen Dream'. It sets the tone for the rest of the album perfectly, a mellow little riff on the guitar and a soothing, balmy vocal line, drums tish-tish-ing gently in the background.

By the chorus it has developed to encompass gently strident drums, cymbal rushes and gorgeous harmonies, a cavalcade of delightful melody. A lovely piece of AR Kane-ey Dreampop.

Download Beach House 'Zebra (UK Edit)' (mp3) (Subpop.com)