Terra Pines – Harp On
Genre: Grunge, Shoegaze, Dream Pop
Similar artists: Low
Terra Pines manage to find the right balance between dreamscapes, and sharp sounds of urban decay.
Most of the greatest musical artists were inclined to take abrupt turns when it came to their art. Some recorded rockabilly records when the record label was expecting modern rock singles, others recorded their guitars feedbacking for two hours and sold it off as conceptual art.
Knocking this, it is tempting to imagine where great bands might have headed to next had their paths not been cut short. Would The Beatles have developed into a doomy band meant to rival the proto-metal groups of the 70s? Would AC/DC had become a full-fledged punk group had Bon Scott not passed away? And, would Nirvana have turned their attention to
building ethereal soundscapes? Well, I’d like to think they would’ve recorded a reggae album.
But, Terra Pines are inclined to show us what the dream-pop meets grunge route might have looked like. Don’t worry, it’s a concoction that’s been often rehearsed, boiled down to an appropriate temperature, and far more than a mere experiment. Terra Pines sound like a group of people both out of time and burdened by the hardships of life. Harp On is a good document of their struggles.
Pink Milk – I Lose My Mind
Genre: Gothic / Dark Wave, Shoegaze, Dream Pop
Similar artists: Cocteau Twins, The Jesus & Mary Chain, The Cure, This Mortal Coil, Julee Cruise
Pink Milk create slow, dreamscapes on the single I Lose My Mind.
At its origin, and, possibly, at its purest pop songs are dance music. Modern music was created with the purpose of getting people to move, laugh, and spend their hard-earned money. It’s the sound of a modern celebration.
Pop music grew in sophistication over the years. Nowadays, artists ever-increasingly focus on the needs of their audience. Some need to dance, some need to dream. For the latter, the original shoegaze groups wrote the prescription.
It’s what Pink Milk have been taking. Their own take on the sound, as can be observed on I Lose My Mind, is murky, melodic, and dreamy. It’s an exploration of the human psyche, more than it is a direct pop sound. Pink Milk are able to simply whisper into the ears of their fans and get the reactions that they’re after.
