Music

13 Canadian shoegaze and dream pop bands you should listen to

by Mark Teo

Though Canada can’t stake claim to the roots of shoegaze and dream pop — the genre’s roots stem from the ’80s indie pop scene in the U.K. — there’s no shortage of pedal-diddling bands within our ranks. And while beloved acts like Mystery Machine, A Northern Chorus and Tristan Psionic flew the pedal-drenched flag in the ’90s and mid-’00s, a new generation has risen to carry the gazer torch: Some mess with Ride’s atmospherics; others call on The Smiths’ sense of melody; others add in jabs of post-punk; others move the genre in ambient directions. Either way, let these 13 bands carry you sweep you away into lush, heavy-lidded bliss.

Femme Accident

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Though No Joy might be Montreal’s most beloved ‘gazers (more on them later), Femme Accident have been the newcomers who’ve wowed us the most. After cutting 2011’s Charms, an occasionally shapeless but supremely promising debut, the band put together their Shiver LP with recorder-producer-multi-instrumentalist Yannick Sarrazin, the Omegas guitarist who’s become a staple of the city’s punk scene. The result is some of the most confident shoegaze we’ve heard recently: While Femme Accident retain the meandering penchant of their early work, the band’s vocals have emerged as a standout, with singer Sophie—no last name given—providing wispy pop melodies atop Femme Accident’s languid haze. The result? Stick-in-your-head dream pop that sound like the band’s barely trying.

 

No Joy

It’s a rare feat for bands to audibly improve with each release, but Montreal shoegaze standard No Joy have done just that. While we all assumed that 2010’s Ghost Blonde was the trio’s statement of arrival, the band’s only gotten noiser, more cavernous, and more focused on the two releases that followed. Their Mexican Summer-released Wait To Pleasure LP was a sprawling, textured slowburner in the Slowdive vein, but the band topped it within months: The three-song Pastel and Pass OutEP, released last November, displayed the band’s newfound ability to straddle the line between restraint and all-out noise (especially on the bludgeoning, explosive “Starchild is Dead”). We can’t wait to hear what comes next.

 

Mavo

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Mavo isn’t exactly a textbook shoegaze or dream pop band, but they sound a lot like the independent music that directly preceded it in the U.K. It’s clear they’re C86 scholars—see: the ’80s British movement that’d inspire modern twee and D.I.Y. pop—but along with their minimalist approach to pop, the band also divebombs into fuzz-laden jam-outs (“Mock My Accent”) and crisp, razor-sharp picking (“Totally Tired”), all delivered with a self-aware smirk (see: the incredibly titled “Terrible Brit Pop Haircut”). Fixture Records has a winner on their hands, and Mavo’s debut 7-inch is leading the charge.

 

Rituals

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As Toronto staples go, much love is given to Odonis Odonis’ brand of industrial- and surf-tinged whatevergaze—but far less chatter has been devoted to Rituals, Adam Christopher Seward’s fuzzed-out project. While this isn’t prototypical shoegaze (though it’s clear that Seward likes the psych of the Jesus and Mary Chain), Rituals create wonderful songs that can, at turns, feel elegant and intimidating. Start with Mesmerized, below.

 

Monomyth

While Halifax seems largely dominated by jittery power pop, the ever-undefinable Monomyth aren’t afraid to break that mold—and while they’re not strictly a shoegaze band, they’ve certainly experimented with the genre. Their newest release, the Trash Day cassette released on Craft Singles (the label run by Crosss mastermind Andy March), shows the band’s penchant for guitar theatrics—but their previous release, King Does This Not Please You?, saw the band drenching their ample riffage behind walls of luscious noise. We especially dig “Coastal,” below.

 

The Moas

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The last time we wrote about Scott Gowen, we were giving daps to his Saskatoon emporium, Beaumont Film and Record. This time, we want to give daps to his shoegaze-inclined foursome, The Moas. Though the band isn’t as pedal-warped as, say, No Joy, the band feels like it’s perpetually in its comfort zone, evident right from the lazily strummed opening of their self-titled cassette: All bent notes, off-kilter organs, and cooed vocals, the band hits the sweet spot between dream pop and slowcore.

 

Beliefs 

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Hand Drawn Dracula is a well-established entity among Toronto music fetishists, and Beliefs is one of their crowning achievements. Led by Josh Korody, a producer who’s handled tracks by the Dirty Nil, Great Bloomers, and Burning Love, Beliefs might be Toronto’s best dream pop act. A good starting point for the band: The sweeping, instant classic “Catch My Breath,” which floats in on wave of distortion, pummels with a breathless chorus, takes a sharp left turn into rippling noise, then rinses and repeats.

 

Elsa

We’ve only heard one track from Toronto’s Elsa, from their four-song I Do 12-inch cut by Mike Haliechuk’s One Big Silence label—but damn, is it ever a stunner. “In Two” is easily one of the best tracks from 2013, featuring swooning vocals, gauzy guitars, and a vibe so opulent, you’d think this band was smeared head to toe in foie gras. Mental note to myself: Grab that 12-inch.

 

Village

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Tim Clapp’s Kingfisher Bluez label has long been documenting Vancouver’s underground, and now, the label unearthed another gem with Village. The feathery light dream pop outfit has already cut three releases with the venerable label—one EP and two 7-inches—the latest of which was released last November. That release, featuring two editions of “Stranger Thoughts,” is a high-water mark for the band and had their strongest track yet, with rainforest-lush synths, twinkling guitars, and an ambient-leaning reboot of the track on side B. Not to be missed.

 

Programm

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Programm adds a harder-edged dimension to this list—while they certainly flirt with shoegaze, the band draws heavily on post-punk, darkwave, and even industrial. Note their prominent use of a drum machine—and unlike, say, Merchandise’s grandiose use of programmed percussion, this Toronto foursome shirks opulence in favour of bedroom-recording grit. Their three-song EP, below, is an ice-cold winner—we especially dig “Everything At Once,” a seven-minute shapeshifter whose airy ambience eventually transforms itself into an ear-splitting, heavily processed paint peeler.

 

Creaks

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Alberta seemingly has an obsession with garage—thanks, in part, the efforts of labels like Mammoth Cave and up-and-comers like Betrayers—and that penchant for spacey snyths and power-chord riffage has evidently spread to its ‘gazers. Some of Creaks’ work, like “Daydream” below, displayed a penchant for swooning psych, though their Soundcloud page exhibits a minor obsession with the cosmos (“Come to Us Now,” perhaps the dreamiest track yet), xylophone charmers (“Animal Eyes”), and even ramshackle power pop (“Break It”). We don’t know exactly what to expect from the Edmonton-based Creaks, but we suspect that’s a good thing.

 

Breeze

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Breeze is Josh Korody’s second appearance in this story—though it has a distinctly different feel than his other gig, Beliefs. Assembling a lineup featuring members of Great Bloomers, Islands, and Elk, Breeze chose a softer-focus approach to Korody’s main gig—though when the light-as-cotton-candy chorus of “Dolls” hits, it’s evident that Breeze have plenty of pop chops, too. We can’t wait to hear more.

 

Hush Pup

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Toronto-Victoria cassette label Legwarmer Records intrigued us with Darlene, a three-song EP by Hush Pup that deservedly made Silent Shout’s year-end lists for 2013. Playing a brand of pretty-as-heck dream pop, the band’s swirling keys and playful guitarwork support singer Ida Maidstone—also of Triple Gangers—who steals the show with her powerful vocals, oscillating between lullaby croons and coy, breathy pop tracks.