It’s raining so hard outside that it seems inconceivable that ‘summer is icumen in’ to quote the anonymous 13th century poet, but Swedish duo Lagun are already there with their EP ‘Beach Days’ released yesterday. And if you’re not actually quite in that frame of mind yet , well their release is so dreamy that you could easily be transported with them, even if the ‘cuccu’ hasn’t started singing ‘lhude’ where you are.
I realise I’ve probably lost everyone already, but the opposite is true for Lagun, because their new EP is really easy to understand, accessible shimmering dream pop that you should get on 1st listen. They’re based around musicians Laura Lyth and Fredrik Sjöström and they recorded and produced Beach Days completely independently in the countryside away from their Stockholm base.
There’s probably 3 standout tracks on the EP. ‘Land of Sharks’ is a shimmering track with a psychedelic feel, with Lyth’s vocals carving out a memorable melody over the top, and an extended instrumental section to get lost in.
‘Why Lee’ is less psych and has a refined meandering tune, with carefully judged sax peeking through, and it reminds me a little of the style of bands we often feature from the Rama Lama label – understated cool and sophisticated indie pop.
‘At Night’ is particularly laid back in style and doesn’t make quite such an impression on early listens, whilst ‘Take Off’ is Lagun has a hazy 60s backdrop with echoing guitars. But ‘Shotgun’ is Lagun at their best, hitting the ground running with another distinct If dreamy melody, the vocal harmonies fusing together naturally with sax.
Effortlessly tripping between dream pop, psych, 60s through 90s indie and shoegaze, Lagun have really made an impression with their debut release, as shown too by the coverage they’re getting from music websites across the world. I think they’ll probably be quite happy being featured anywhere, as long as there’s a beach - and maybe a bar.
‘Beach Days‘ was released just yesterday.