Sports Dreams is a duo from Palmerston North who have just released their first EP of low-key glorious dream-pop… or maybe that should be sports-dream-pop. Here’s the second song from the EP: “SD3”:
Sports Dreams is Shannen Petersen (Fruit Juice Parade) and Fraser Williams (First Move) and the songs collected on their self-titled EP are a simple but very effective combination of synth washes, languid guitar strums, drum machine and Petersen’s soaring vocals.
For a contemporary reference point for Sports Dreams sound I suppose you could consider Beach House on account of the keyboard/ guitar/ voice combination.
However, Sports Dreams offer a lot more to engage with for me. There’s a slightly claustrophic and menacing undercurrent in the atmosphere of suburban ennui of the mostly slow-paced songs.
The minimalist percussion, lush reverb-heavy layered synth tones, and the emotional weight of the vocals, conveying moments of both introspection and drama, remind me of melancholic Scottish band The Blue Nile and at times even a hint of post-4AD label era Cocteau Twins. Dream-pop for nightmare times.
Pop Lib 