Fresh from delivering one of the most distinctive and imaginative Shoegaze albums of the year, the last March debut “Dreamers in Dark Cities” via Shelflife Records, the Melbourne / Naarm, Australia-based five-peace Oceans, currently on a New Zealand tour, have already started jamming and composing new tunes for an intriguing follow-up in the new year, whose first foretaste, titled “Laura”, the band was kind enough to premiere on WL//WH, and we’re super excited to share it with you.
The quintet, made up of Thomas Lee on guitar & vocals, Mayzie Lee (VHS Dream / Mayzie) on vocals, Michael Fox on drums, Samuel Black on guitar and David Escott on bass, with “Laura”, written by the New Zealander singer/songwriter Mayzie herself, departs from the LP by leaning toward deliciously bewitching 90s Dream Pop realms, to confirm the band’s knack for ceaselessly tweaking their captivating kaleidoscopic multi-layered sound, straddling the line between present and nostalgia while maintaining their trademark sparkling instrumental textures, and mesmerizing vocal harmonies rife with emotive melodic sensitivity.
Subtle tambourine shakes and jangly guitar arpeggios embrace a vibrant and whimsical bittersweet sway of shuffling percussions, humming bass lines, fluid keyboard washes, shimmery strums, along with flimsy dazzling wistful reverbs, interspersed by a stirring slightly distorted swirling stop-and-go momentum, to surround breathless emotional vocals, rising and falling in nostalgic longing, with the touching sentiments for a long-lost friend, “I hope that you’re alright.”
Oceans‘ upcoming single, “Laura”, is due out, independently, on December 12th via the major digital platforms, while the band’s sophomore album is scheduled to be released sometime in mid-2014.
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