Name: SolarSolarFrom: Waterloo, Ontario
Story: Dream-pop with a nightmarish undercurrent
Sound: Hazy synths, electronic interference, tiny vocals, echo
"Home is where the monsters lie," sings Angela Drysdale in a tiny, worried, eerie voice; making domesticity sound utterly haunted, the familiar walls of a bedroom cast in shadows of true terror. Whilst surely summoning the persistent fear of childhood, the repeated refrain also effectively suggests SolarSolar's metier: making intimate, insular music of quiet unease.
The husband/wife duo hail from Waterloo, Ontario —though they may've recently relocated to Toronto— and make drifting dream-pop that sets Drysdale's pleasingly-thin voice to minimalist synth moods. Whilst there's an obvious influence of minimalist composers, there's a slipperiness to the pair's compositions; with babbling bursts of interference quietly flickering away beneath their calm surface.
Even though it's built almost entirely on synths, it's not really synth-pop. SolarSolar's washed-out, dreamy synth music will play sweetly for any fans of fellow Canadian duo Memoryhouse or shoegaze romantics Slowdive. Their debut EP, 2010's Secrets and Orchids, is still available for free download on Bandcamp, and their first LP, Pilot, is coming out February 21 on Binary Records.
- Listen: SolarSolar, "Walking Like Children"
- Listen: SolarSolar, "Pilot"
- Listen: SolarSolar, "Albatross" (Wild Beasts Cover)
- Watch: SolarSolar, "I Can't Find You"
- Visit: SolarSolar on Bandcamp
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