NEW MONDAY! SOFT SET – Love and Dancing EP
Soft Set – Love and Dancing EP is available at Apple Music, Bandcamp, Spotify.
by Walter Price
There are many layers to the new-to-me 2020 EP, ‘Love and Dancing’, by Toronto duo Soft Set. A brilliant mix of post-punk, dream-pop, and plenty of breezy So-Cal vibes of the 1960s that’ll find fans of Pet Sounds and Beach House’s Bloom coming together. Produced by Ride’s Mark Gardener, this album is brimming with lush arrangments, ethereal harmonies, and more heart than one can soak up with just one listen.
James Gray and Nathan Athay, also conjure up thoughts of what it would sound like if The Pet Shop Boys went into shoe-gaze territories. As their seemingly autobiographical lyrics are aimed at your soul, the linear storylines here are picturesque and certainly as beautiful as they are memory-inducing.
And you can get yourself acclimated by checking out the single “Never Die” and see its vintage home movie music video. The film truly encapsulates the emotional ride you’ll go on as you listen to the entire LP. All those fleeting little moments in your life that’ll stick with you throughout your journeys may return in the form of a song. And that’s the sense you have here, well done indeed.
SOFT SET – Love and Dancing
+ Never Die
Band photo via Facebook
All songs written and produced by James Gray and Nathan Athay at E5 Studios (downtown Toronto)
Mixed by Mark Gardener at OX4 Studios, Oxford UK
Mastered by Harris Newman at Grey Market Mastering, Montreal QC
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“Dream pop/indie rock duo Soft Set is James Gray and Nathan Athay, longtime friends who grew up together in both Barrie and Toronto, Ontario. Debut EP “Love and Dancing” mixed by Mark Gardener (Ride).” – fb bio