Dreamwave

New Banger” NME

“Like a cosmic comet streaking across the sky…their sound is churning tempest” Still Listening 

“It looks like we have all the paraphernalia of a psyche rock masterpiece: scuzzy guitars dipped in the Ancient Springs of Reverb, an unreachable rainbow of drawbar organs showing you colours that may or may not actually be there…” The Most Radicalis

Bristol psych-quartet Dreamwave announce debut EP Dreamwave and The Mindcave - due 3rd May 2024 - and share swirling dream-pop of ‘Hidden Sun’ - released 22nd March via Velvet Echoes.

The follow-up to the fizzing kraut-punk of ‘Mindcave’ - shared last month to the plaudits of NME, Still Listening, Blogotheque, Wax Music and Post-Brexit Pop - new single ‘Hidden Sun’ reveals the other side of the Dreamwave coin. A synth-washed, psych-splashed dose of euphoric dream-pop - caught somewhere between Slowdive and Melody’s Echo Chamber - the track not only captures a band at their most tender and enchanting, but showcases the broad extent of their neo-psych visions.

With keyboardist Hester Battin taking lead vocal duties, the track finds some unlikely roots in the sunburnt soundtracks of Ennio Morricone, and the synth-pop gloss of Tears For Fears, as the band themselves explain:

“Inspired by the dreamy synths of Ennio Morricone’s soundtrack for ‘Il Mercenario - but adding our own oneiric twist - with ‘Hidden Sun’ we were aiming at crafting a composition that exudes a comforting warmth, reminiscent of the soothing colour palettes of Leone’s film: washed out pastels, baked in a subtly orange tint, emulating the heat of a hidden sun in a desert environment. We also got really inspired seeing Tears for Fears perform live, so we bought a bunch of 80s synthesiers, which you can hear across ‘Hidden Sun’ in all their glory”

More about Dreamwave and Dreamwave and The Mindcave

Formed in Brighton in 2018 when friend (and future keyboardist/vocalist) Hester Battin heard the demos of University housemates Benjamin Symons (Guitar/vocals) and Cameron Organ (bass) and persuaded them to play at a show she was promoting at The Bee’s Mouth, which came to be the first Dreamwave show. A four-piece eventually formed - completed by drummer Alex Andrews, and moved west to their collective Bristol hometown - united over their mutual love of psychedelia and krautrock

Self-releasing a pair of home-recorded efforts - bringing them backing from BBC Introducing Bristol, a performance at last year’s Glastonbury festival, plus support slots for international psych figureheads Holy Wave, Boogarins, Night Beats and System Exclusive (of Castle Face Records) - Dreamwave and The Mindcave EP represents the band’s first major studio recording to date.

Recorded at Wiltshire’s Nine Volt Studios with producer Dom Bailey, the EP nonetheless sees the band stay true to their ad hoc DIY ethos. Keeping elements of Symons home-recorded demos in the final mix - some dating when he was 15 - the EP mingles rough live-takes, outdoor microphones, and vocals recorded through Chad Valley Sing Along Children’s toy to produce deliciously diverse, and tightly-crafted 20 minute package, one that absorbs all the best global neo-psychedelia from the last 15 years and remoulds it into Dreamwave’s distinctive DIY-psych image