Anthens, Georgia’s gazey bleep duo pacificUV caught me off guard last week with their wonderfully dreamy slice of longing ‘Funny Girl’. Its brightly coloured carousel of celestial synth sweeps and bleeps are the kind that M83 has been trading on his past few releases, these allow almost nonchalant yet broken vocal to creep it’s way through: it’s the sound of Stephen Merrit telling you about that ‘girl’ in a late night drunken haze. Saviour it as a FREE download below you won’t regret it! It’s taken from their album ‘WEEKENDS’ on April the 6th.
pacificUV was formed in the late 1990s in Athens, Georgia. Half the band wanted to sound like a psychedelic Jesus and Mary Chain tripping on Nyquil, while the other half wanted to play one chord for 45 minutes to determine its color. Somehow, what emerged from these disparate goals was their critically acclaimed, 4 years in the making, self-titled debut album.
Following a move to Portland, Oregon and the release of their second L.P. – Longplay 2 – in 2008, the band moved back to its native Athens, Georgia and spent the last two years recording its third, and best, record, WEEKENDS. Featuring guest appearances by such Athens luminaries as B.P. Helium (of Montreal) and John Fernandez (Olivia Tremor Control), WEEKENDS is the sound of a band diversifying: the Magnetic Fields electro pop of “funny girl” or the vocoder rush of “ballerina” finds pacificUV embracing a more melodic direction while still maintaining the lush, ethereal, production aesthetic for which they are known.
