DIIV’s North American headlining tour pedals into Orlando this summer.
Last autumn, the Brooklyn indie-shoegazers opened for Depeche Mode at the Kia Center, but this time DIIV take the stage in a more intimate venue.
After a five-year wait for a new album, DIIV’s Frog in Boiling Water delivers the goods with lush reverb, melancholic dream-pop vocals and somber melodies all making for a shoegazer’s paradise.
With touring openers Horse Jumper of Love and Dutch Interior, the North American leg of the tour kicks off in a few days. There are only three Florida dates: Orlando, Tampa and Miami.
DIIV plays Orlando’s House of Blues on Saturday, July 20. Tickets start at $44.50 and can be purchased through Live Nation.
YEDM introduced K4LT as a new artist in July 2023, with his pensive, ambient track called “LCPD”. It was a follow-up to his first EP, Endgame, and was two years in the making as well as a departure from his original style. Now focused more on electronic production, “LCPD” has seen an intriguing amount of buzz, both from the industry and fans. Audiences are put on notice, however, not to settle into the dreamy, celestial vibe of “LCPD”. A very different mood is incoming with K4lT’s latest track, “This Room (Reprise)”.
The Belin-based K4LT, whose artist name is a stylized version of the German word “kalt” (trans. “cold” in English), has said his new rash of songs is a reflection of the isolation created by the COVID lockdowns and the struggle of people even now to remember how to socialize. “This Room,” released early this month, with its pseudo-goth synth styling, relentless, quick-paced beat and the ennui and anxiety heavy in the lyrics, gives a disturbingly accurate picture of what many people are experiencing post-pandemic.
…the experience of more and more of your friends (and probably yourself too a bit) turn into modern day hermits, giving up on parts of life like relationships or having fun in life at all. Just trying to make it without giving any efforts into what would make them truly happy. And the songwriter being afraid how that ends (reading the “list of deaths per year”). In the end the song is about not accepting this defeats and fighting to get up, be motivated (“up to interfere”).
“This Room (Reprise)” is also meant to be throwback to a song of the same name by The Notwist, one of K4LT’s biggest influences. This is not a remix or a cover, but a complete re-imagining of the track, as The Notwist’s original is more directly shoegaze and post punk with some interesting vintage and experimental interludes, which might remind some fans of mid-era Radiohead or Death Cab for Cutie merging with Venetian Snares. Refreshingly honest about naming his influences and inspirations, K4LT’s version is both a continuation of the original tone of the track and a reversal. Where The Notwist’s original is soft, vulnerable and largely rock-based, K4LT’s reprise semi-industrial and itchy, pacing, impatient, bordering on frustrated. A contrary statement to the original, but no less impactful.
Perhaps “This Room (Reprise)” meant to show the difference in the way we manage relationships and interact with each other since the lockdown. Rather than focusing on a relationship and where it’s going, we’re constantly looking outward whilst staying inward, not satisfied but not willing to do anything about it. A tech-driven futility and an inability to process emotions through relationships – or even at all – stamps this track. That itch is there though, K4LT warns, and it’s ready to break the surface, the portends of the last line repeated before the song cuts off: “…up to interfere; up to interfere.”
“This Room (Reprise)” is out now and available to stream along with K4LT’s other works on Spotify. They can also be purchased on Bandcamp.
YEDM debuted Millennium Resorts to our readers in anticipation of their In the Key of David album debut with the first single, “Happiness,” late last month. A chugging, progressive bop of a synthwave masterpiece with just enough indie lyricism to make it really interesting, “Happiness” was a good entry point into the world of Millennium Resorts, reminiscent of the good old days of dream pop like early MGMT and M83 but with a pinch of grunge-era Dig or Winchester Revival.
The next teaser, “The Big Show,” released on November 25 and is just as long as “Happiness” (there are shorter radio edits for both) but much more of a think piece, both musically and conceptually. As In the Key of David is a concept album, this track is where the band really bites into said concept. For those listeners who made it through “Happiness,” “The Big Show” rewards them with a darker and more goth-heavy synth layout and an almost operatic layout. It’s what one would expect if one asked a Moog and an 808 to confer with ChatGPT to write a Broadway musical with Andrew Lloyd Webber as the model. It’s a good thing it’s called “he Big Show.”
With genre twists and turns, everything from new wave to Tron to shoegaze to Zappa, the musical journey almost distracts from the message of “The Big Show,” but luckily the eerie, Ween-like vocals both ride over and ground the meandering music. Enough of a contrast to force the listener to focus, the lyrics seem directly contrary to those in “Happiness,” deconstructing hopelessness and the emotional oppression of daily life into an existential nightmare in the face of the modern world. While not confirmed that it’s about consumerism and the pitfalls of get-ahead culture, it certainly seems apt that the duo decided to release this one right as the Christmas season was getting started. Either way it’s a musical snapshot of a dystopian and it seems likely that Millennium Resorts like it that way. Look at their name, after all.
So, along with expertly crafted, highly complex music, this is also the depth of thought new fans of this new band can expect to get out of In the Key of David, if the concept track of “The Big Show” within this concept album is anything to go by. For those who like their synthwave on the darkwave side mood-wise, this album will be right up that street.
In the Key of David releases on January 25, 2024. Listen to “Happiness” and “The Big Show” here.
With a base or early synth pop, the shoegaze concept of wall of sound and a heavy bent towards experimental or progressive electronica, the first single off Millennium Resorts’ shows how far one can take all of those genres. The Austin production/musician duo has technically made two singles out of the first track on their upcoming album, In the Key of David, because they are quite different from each other. If they were a fully EDM outfit, they might have called them an original and a VIP mix, but with one foot soundly in prog rock and shoegaze, they used “full album version” and “radio edit.” No matter what you call them, the two versions of “Happiness” are a great introduction into the immersive, multi-genre world of Millennium Resorts.
With “Happiness” releasing just this past week on October 27, Millennium Resorts plan to release one more track, “The Big Show,” before In the Key of David drops on January 26. Presumably, these are the first two tracks of the album, as they’ve said it’s a concept album and meant to be listened to from start to finish.
One of the most important aspects of ‘In The Key of David’ is that it is meant to be listened to from front to back. The album was composed and executed as an album. It was never just a song here and there, it was completely outlined before the production started.
That said, “Happiness” works quite well as a stand-alone piece. With shoegaze-style ambient programming and guitar riffs licking at the edges of the song, the full version channels dream pop like M83 or Washed Out but with a different, more rock-forward format. The Moog-style ambient synths are there to support the vox and guitar rather than all the elements flowing together. As the duo were inspired by the likes of Pink Floyd and other progressive rock acts in the genre’s heyday, it makes sense that “Happiness” would flow in this way. With a healthy dose of experimental composition as well, the album piece is somewhere in the space where MGMT would meet Silversun Pickups: utilizing all the best elements of every modern genre to create an immersive and emotive experience. Once the guitar solo kicks in near the end of the nearly eight-minute track, listeners will be completely drawn in.
The radio edit of “Happiness” has a shorter intro but there is nonetheless a different intro created for it. The verse and initial music also sound more minimal and raw. Whether this is because the Millennium Resorts created different production or simply because the cuts and edits are so masterful that it creates the feeling of a completely different track doesn’t really matter; it’s a different experience.
Aside from all the style and substance of their work, Millennium Resorts seem to be all about the experience. They want to immerse the listener in this world of sound they’ve created, and if “Happiness” is anything to go by, they’re excellent at doing just that. In the Key of David will likely be an even headier experience, and fans of this experimental style of dream pop mixed with prog rock and a touch of future bass should look forward to it.
“Happiness” is out now and can be streamed on Spotify or Bandcamp. The subsequent teaser track and the full album In the Key of David will be available on these same platforms in November and January, respectively.
