Dora Flood

Since 1995's striking EP debut, 1301, the Bay Area's Dora Flood have been producing some of the most notable shoegazing dream-pop to come from the United States. Never married to a singular musical vision, each of the band's records have seen exploration into other genres, drawing the best features of each back into the warm and fuzzy nest of dream-pop. Highlands continues the psychedelic playfulness of 2002's Welcome. This record delivers a healthy dose of sixties inflected (oh, those jangling guitars; the lovely, airy harmonizing) psychedelia that summons The Byrds on the lush, chiming "Phantasm" and "Echoes," and The Beatles circa Magical Mystery Tour in the jaunty rhythm changes and multi-tracked vocals of rocker "Where You Belong." Stratospheric guitar and synthesizer echoes of the seventies' British prog rockers are layered into the records' best cut, "Evening on My Mind." Opener "Stargazer," with its sedate repeated guitar patterns and processed vocal comes off as early nineties drone pop, and surely a stoned Jason Pierce was looking over the band's collective shoulder as this was being recorded; the loopy synthesizer line in the mid-section wouldn't be out of place on a Japanese synth-pop album. It's a winner, and highly commendable as is this record on the whole.

Based out of: sf bay

Downloadable MP3: Stargazing

Listen To: "Stargazing"

Contact:

Website: www.doraflood.com