When I think about the genre “Dream-Pop”, my mind doesn’t immediately hit to home-base. Let’s face it, Sydney and Australia in general is a bright, adventurous place. It’s filled with the type of good-times vibes and larrikin-ism that doesn’t really inspire the slow, cloudy sounding music. When I think of dream-pop, I think of Scandinavia or France with acts like Postiljonen and M83. Darkness for days on end, northern lights, nothing but land, mountain and skies.
But stereotypes aside, there are a few local acts looking poised to do quite well on this front. Recently, personal favourites Panama released their latest, Stay Forever, complete with wispy, dramatically draining vocals and huge “up in the sky” type instrumentals. Briefly put, it’s a tribute to what winter in Australia can sometimes do to a man and a tasty look into what a dream-pop scene could look like over here.
NOIRE are another a brand new dream-pop act from Sydney. Their second single ‘Those Days‘ was recorded with multi-ARIA award-winning producer Wayne Connolly who produced bands that are nowhere near dream-poppy, The Vines, You Am I and Youth Group. As a lot of bands in this genre do, NOIRE poses that same pop sensibility that is dark as it is colourful and as emotional as it is uplifting.
A nice sign of things to come.