THE BACKSTORY:
For a band still in their relative infancy, London-based Junodream are showing no limit to their ambitions. Over the course of two EPs, the hotly-tipped five-piece have displayed an impressive mastery of styles, careering from post-rock and modern prog to dreamy shoegaze and blissed-out psychedelia. The end result, for all its rampant eclecticism, is a delightfully accessible blend of bracing songcraft and dense atmospherics – the sort of band that should appeal as much to fans of conventional indie-rock as to followers of more outre, experimental sounds.
First emerging in 2017, the band – vocalist Ed Vyvyan, bassist Will Ryder, drummer Jake Gidley and guitarists Tom Rea and Dougal Gray – have been friends since they first met at secondary school, bonding over a shared love of Radiohead, The Brian Jonestown Massacre and Slowdive. After going their separate ways to study at uni, the five friends eventually reconvened in a small Hampshire village and, free from big city distractions, began to develop their expansive, genre-bending sounds.
With two acclaimed EPs under their belts, Terrible Things That Could Happen and Isn’t It Lovely (To Be Alone), the band have so far amassed over four million streams on Spotify, plus glowing support from BBC Introducing and Radio X. Firmly on an upward trajectory, Junodream – judging by their thrilling early releases – will surely continue to keep their fans and critics guessing.
KEY TRACK: ‘easy life’ – the band’s latest single release, this hypnotic slice of alt-rock experimentation explores the crippling anxiety and alienation that can arise from living one’s life through social media.
FOR FANS OF: Radiohead, Ride, Mystery Jets, Everything Everything.
