The Recommender

Southern Shores are finding themselves washed up on the beaches of many a music blog of recent, as we build up to their debut 6-track EP, Atlantic, which begins with the release of it’s first single, Night Is Young, that’s officially out today. It would be easy to join in with the often-generic editorial coverage and state that they’re the perfect soundtrack to your summer, but in all honesty, they would make you feel summery if you were camping in the depths of northern Russia in January, so warm and comforting is their marvellous music.

The first single is available as a free download below, handed out to us and everyone else from the excellent label Cascine, who often focus on a distinctive brand of experimental pop. They have links with the established Swedish label, Service, often harnessing their Scandinavian aesthetic with their selections, but Cascine are known to have one foot discovering in the US and the other in the UK, including the signature of some of The Recommender’s current favourites, in Selebrities and Chad Valley – the latter of which has just released one of the best EPs of 2011 himself.

Cascine’s new darlings, Southern Shores, are a duo from Halifax, Nova Scotia on the East Coast of Canada, that selected to feed their creativity with a brief spell living in Berlin, which is perhaps what’s handed them a kind of world fusion that used to be harnessed so well by The Transglobal Underground – a band with whom the Canadian’s share a warm, sample-heavy sound, minus Transglobal’s Asian ethnicity.

Ben Dalton and Jamie Townsend make a sound as expansive as the ocean itself, which will appeal to almost everyone, making it totally inoffensive, but more importantly allowing it to suit a variety of situations – managing to relax you wherever you are into state that would usually take a hammock tied to a palm tree. Their careful productions marry a style of Scandinavian electronic pop with steel drum synths, seeming like an expensive, quality cocktail – refreshingly ice cold, but fruity and delicate.

The debut EP, Atlantic, is due out on July 12th on Cascine and continues their signature soundscapes of voices and samples that seem like they’re balancing the electronic and the organic. Take Me Anywhere once again feels like flying, continuing their trademark ability to drift, with a slow start and echoing vocals. Their track names are just as much a part of their image too, which is continued on this EP with the tropical-sounding Antibo and Tangier Winds, both of which re-introduce the lightly-tapped, layered drums.

The first single off the EP, Night Is Young, washes the patient pace in a slow house music detergent. It’s perhaps the most reminiscent tune on the EP of label mate Chad Valley, harnessing an 80s pop influence and a 70s disco throb without any sense of irony. It still breaches the water for air at regular intervals, but is ultimately their least sensual track, aiming for your feet for the first time on the record.

When creating sensory music such as this it’s a difficult balance of rarely penetrating your conscious, yet still managing to resist the trap of being forgetful. It sticks with you like an emotion. It’s a skill they harnessed with earlier tracks, such as First Time, which has the kind of sound patterns that will remind you of Dreadzone‘s Little Britain. It’s sample heavy but is woven together like gossamer.

Seasonal music such as this – perfectly timed for a release in June and July – seems designed for it’s influences, which are heavily immersed in the islands of Hawaii, Grande Comore or any other tropical, equatorial paradise. However, what they’ve fully understood is that most of us don’t actually exist in these places – most of us only ever dream of them. What they’ve produced is in fact an EP that’s not so much for soundtracking an actual experience, but instead harnesses the ability to transport your imagination there and that’s surely suitable not just any time, but all the time. (MB)

SOUTHERN SHORES – NIGHT IS YOUNG

SOUTHERN SHORES – FIRST TIME EVER