I know that there's a dream-pop scene in the Philippines but I don't know from firsthand experience visiting my wife's family there. The country values music highly, though, and given Idris Vicuña's youth there, and his returns years later, I think that's a significant detail when attempting to make sense of the music of his band, Eyedress. Let's Skip to the Wedding, out on Lex Records on Friday, is a record that suggests dream-pop of the past, and something else entirely.
"Skateboarding Day" and "Can I See You Tonight?" recall material from recent peers like Dog Bite and High Sunn, the lo-fi indie here conjuring up a mood that's nearly as strong as the hooks, while "X-Girl" goes one better by offering up a riff that sounds like something from an early His Name is Alive record. Vicuña gets lost at times here on Let's Skip to the Wedding, but the concise nature of these tunes helps keeps things relatively grounded. I mean, as soon as a track sort of loses the path, Idris is already on his way towards another one.
At its best, the music on Let's Skip to the Wedding bears favorable comparisons to that of Ablebody and Death Cab for Cutie, among others, with the melodies here being really engaging ones, and the textures uniformly warm and hypnotic. With material like "Happy Hour", Eyedress point the way towards a melding of both pop and texture. And while this all might be very emotive dream-pop, the compositions are all tight and precise little rockers that, in their chord structure, resemble bits and pieces of, say, Guided by Voices and Apples in Stereos albums.
Let's Skip to the Wedding is out on Friday via Lex Records.
More details on Eyedress via the official Facebook page.
[Photo: Razy Faouri]