Brooklyn based band Vivienne Eastwood wrote to me and asked me to check out their new EP Home Movies, and the moment I listened to it briefly, I seriously wondered why it had slipped under my radar. After a few more in-depth listens, I was convinced that it was going to be one of my favourite EP’s of 2020. It’s like listening to a blend of the best of current dreampop – the haziness of Daywave, the quirkiness of Orchid Mantis and the energy of Beach Fossils – whilst discovering something fresh at the same time. Home Movies envelops us in a cloud of pleasant sounds and lo-fi goodness: from reverb drenched glittery jangle, warped synths, to post-punky bass-lines and new-wave beats.
The EP kicks off with the upbeat euphoria of “Hanging Gardens” in which jangly guitars and sighing voices spiral and whirl around us, lifting us up, skywards towards a place where everything is fine. “Afterall” is positively evocative of the signature sounds of Joy Division and early New Order, just like “Arteries” which runs and bubbles nicely like oxygen to our musical veins, and the surf-poppy “Gingerly“, which could be easily belong to the Surf Rock Is Dead catalogue. “No Toes” is a fragile moment of quiescent contemplation, in which I hear influences of early 90’s alt-bands such as Smashing Pumpkins and Codeine. Closer of the EP, “Home Movies“, is probably my favourite: the song embodies its title quite accurately, sounding like a soundtrack to a faded VHS, lost and rediscovered in someone’s attic, evoking soft pangs of dreamy nostalgia and a longing for what is lost.
How this wonderful EP hasn’t gotten any media attention yet is truly beyond me…
Listen to it here on Bandcamp:
