Soundpool

Dichotomies + Dreamland

(Aloft)

Record Review by Marcel Feldmar

Sometimes it’s so wonderful to have new sounds fall across your ears. It happens to me a lot less frequently than it should. I try to listen to new music, new bands, but always find myself slipping back into old faves. So when I got hit with just the first notes of Soundpool’s album – I was very pleased to find myself slipping into the future.

There are definite hints of sounds and movements from out of some fuzzy sonic past, like the most psychedelic Beatles song you’ve ever heard melting into a Stereolab dream. There’s a lot of notes that bring to mind Seattle’s Melody Unit, but this is lighter and less driving, though it still definitely hits the road and pulls you along.

Space rock dream pop shoegaze melodic ethereal waves. Not sure where to place this. You drift, dream, dance. It’s enveloping melodic pop that hits almost like some fantastic hallucination, but the only side effect seems to be the desire to listen to more songs by this band. Soundpool hits all of those genre-describing attempts with a summer-heat laziness and it all just feels so good. There are controlled bursts of noise and touches of some strange keyboard heaven.

Kim Field’s vocals stretch and fly across the shifting ethereal soundscapes, while the rhythm section puts some hip shaking movements down underneath, and the guitar lines hit melodies with a Cocteau Twin sparkle. This album just flows straight through. Every song can be heard and listened to on its own, but as a whole, it’s supremely cohesive, without becoming redundant.