As someone who loves the genres of Shoegaze and Dream Pop it’s always great to discover one more band to get excited about.
Hailing from California is the group Mo Dotti who I was led to by the Blog the Finest Kiss. The group already has a few songs and an ep under their belt and I can definitely hear what the writer of Finest Kiss meant when they said that Mo Dotti’s music is a mix of the classic Shoegaze of bands like Lush and Ride with its American counterpart that’s represented by bands like the Swirlies and the Ropers. Their new ep is called Guided Imagery and it’s a worthy piece of music.
The first song “Loser Smile” is a classic piece of shoegaze where the driving guitars evoke My Bloody Valentine while the vocals of singer Gina recall the music of Lush. The title track’s swaying mix of acoustic and electric guitars is another highlight here while “Hurting Slowly” shines with the help of Gina’s ethereal haunting vocals and a lovely line of jangly guitars that ends in a feedback drenched coda. Next, “Lights on In the Sun” is a hazy driving number with tons of noisy fuzzy guitars and crashing drums that seem to bounce around Gina’s vocals. The band also shows that they can branch out beyond mere shoegaze with the psych-pop of “Come on Music”. It’s an intense over five-minute track of fuzzy guitars, steady bass, waves of punchy drums and an immense instrumental buildup until the end. To make this record even sweeter the band includes a cover of a song by Stephin Merritt. However, it’s not a Magnetic Fields song but “All Dressed Up in Dreams” by his 6ths project. Originally sung by Helium’s Mary Timony, Mo Dotti’s take on it is slightly different replacing the twinkly piano with more guitar jangle. The cover definitely plays to the band’s strengths by revealing their innate pop sensibilities.
All in all, Guided Imagery is a fine set of songs by a group who are really good at channeling their influences.
