This edition of LITM Rock Picks is as experimental and genre-bending as ever; featuring Sunny Moonshine, Marine Store Dealer, Dude Safari, and more!
1. Sunny Moonshine, Induhgo – Fireflies
Fusing dreamy psychedelia with electro-rock, Fireflies is a track that takes you high, floating and soaring above the clouds. Its refreshing production (credits to Induhgo) and unconventional arrangements make it unpredictable and exciting, with every measure pulling you closer and closer into being completely enveloped by it. Sunny Moonshine’s ethereal, airy vocals give the whole track a lightness that’s only enhanced by the production and mix; it’s laid-back, chill, and quite lo-fi in its approach to synth and electronica, balancing out its more experimental edges. It’s expansive and spacious while simultaneously feeling like it’s playing right in your head; the track’s flicker and shimmer are sure to stay with you for a while!
2. Marine Store Dealer – Speed Back to Me
London-based three-piece group Marine Store Dealer’s Speed Back to Me is a rock-indie-folk fusion that’s sure to settle into your heart. Gemma Upton’s vocal delivery is confident in its strength and vulnerable in its emotion; with lines like “You speed back to me in every dream, in every darkened room” and “When you took your last breath, what was left of us?”, her voice and the lyrics complement each other perfectly. What really adds depth to the track is the instrumental arrangement – a controlled build and release of tension through drums, piano that softly guides the track, and a violin that steals the show by adding a layer of emotional character, making Marine Store Dealer the ones to watch out for.
3. Dude Safari – Vitamin
With Vitamin, Dude Safari digs up every last ounce of grit, tenacity, and playfulness they could find, and then some. The track blasts into your ears with a rhythm for which “infectious” isn’t an adequate description, guitars for which “electric” doesn’t do justice, and an energy that can only be described as aggressively playful. Describing themselves as grunge-pop, it’s easy to see that Dude Safari is so much more than a boxed genre – Vitamin breaks and bends genre boundaries with a self-assured ease, bringing some of the finest experiments in the space you’ll hear for a while. It’s no frills, no pretence, and all fun.
4. Hypnagogia – Last Light
Hypnagogia is the state between wakefulness and sleep: hazy, disorienting, and uniquely liminal; Elijah Durnell’s musical project Hypnagogia embodies the very same characteristics. Last Light comes to you from behind a curtain of distortion, making the whole listening experience seem otherworldly. It’s heavy on the emotion and angst, perfectly carried by shimmering synths and a pounding rhythm. Cinematic in its scope (it could perfectly score the moment in a film where it all falls apart), it has a certain expansiveness given to it by a vocal reverb that serves to make the track even more alluring every time you listen to it.
5. Dystonic – Vessels
From Dystonic’s album Feral and Familiar, comes Vessels. It immediately transports you to the American countryside to put you in a better mood, no matter what. It’s persistently uplifting, complete with all the metaphors you need to convince you to pick the pieces of your life back up (“Broken vessels are glued with gold / It makes an object more to behold/ Let the origami of your life unfold… The vessel’s the same, even with the cracks). Embodying kintsugi throughout, it highlights the value of resilience, and effortlessly reminds you that breakage and imperfections can lead to something even better than perfect.
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