To these ears, “dream-pop” has often been a misnomer, even including the subgenre’s progenitors, Cocteau Twins. It’s always seemed destined for cataloging those sounds that are the less intense, tad more melodic and softer around the edges cousins of shoegaze. Clearly, one can easily find the “dream” in dream-pop, but it’s often more difficult to locate the “pop”.
So, check this Turkish delight of a track out by Berlin, er, dream-popsters, Ballet School. If you’re wondering what yours truly thinks genuine “dream-pop” is, look no further than “LUX”. Surely, vocalist Rosie Blair bears more than a faint passing resemblance to Elisabeth Fraser in her impressive pitch spectrum, but with her cagey wiriness, the girl can throw down with the best of today’s nascent popstrels.
As remarkable as Blair’s vocals are here, “LUX”s crown jewel is Michel Jun Collet’s distinctive, latticed guitar work. Laying truth to their insistence they are a boundary-pushing “guitar band” and not a “synth band”. Collet’s fluttering leads transform the song into an artifact as crystalline as its namesake.
Ballet School’s debut LP, The Dew Lasts An Hour, will drop 8 September courtesy of one of 2014’s most impressive label caches thus far, Bella Union.
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