Ride the Chillwave

By adding crunchy danceable beats these artists have sweetened the "shoegaze" explorations of the 80's & 90's and have pushed the sonic reverberations further than ever. Chillwave kind of reminds of some sort of mix between Boards of Canada, The Beach Boys, 1970's AM radio (ex. 10CC), and The Cure.

Because of its close association with the "shoegaze" sound (see my previous post) Chillwave has hit me like some sort of warm midsummer t-storm and I can't get enough of it.

Up until recently I found it fairly easy too isolate new music, and the artists creating them, to specific regions. But with the advent of the internets and more specifically the "blogosphere" these geographic lines are starting to break.

"Whereas musical movements were once determined by a city or venue where the bands congregated, 'now it’s just a blogger or some journalist that can find three or four random bands around the country and tie together a few commonalities between them and call it a genre,' said Alan Palomo of Neon Indian"

The New York Times' Jon Pareles described Chillwave as: "They're solo acts or minimal bands, often with a laptop at their core, and they trade on memories of electropop from the 1980s, with bouncing, blipping dance-music hooks (and often weaker lead voices). It's recession-era music: low-budget and danceable."

Com Truise - Sundriped

Teen Daze - Shine On, You Crazy White Cap

Washed Out - You & I

Neon Indian - Should Have Taken Acid with You

Commanche - Velvet Morning




Washed Out with Small Black live - You'll See It & Feel It All Around (Toronto, April 7, 2010)