Run DMT / Happy Family - Banana Split (2010)

 

Chillwave / Hypnagogic Pop / Slacker Rock

RIYL: Ducktails, Panda Bear, Julian Lynch

 ✪ VINYL FANTASY 

★★★★½

The Banana Split EP could be the defining record from the brief but essential chillwave moment at the turn of the first decade into the new millennium, despite the fact that most have probably never heard of either of its contributors. Run DMT (also known as Salvia Plath) and the elusive Happy Family sit at opposite poles of the spectrum spanning the retro-garbling, ethereal and laidback vibes that characterized the micro-genre, but their symbiotically linked coziness and subdued charm immaculately distill the sound into its purest form and present both its bookends from their best possible angles.

Run DMT's side plays like a compilation of highlights in lo-fi guitar pop and hazy surf rock put forth by the Underwater Peoples label (Ducktails, Julian Lynch and Real Estate all come to mind instantly) while Happy Family instead dabbles in the blissed-out, sample-based, echoing psychedelia a la Panda Bear's Person Pitch that could easily be argued to have kicked off the whole movement years earlier in 2007. The shoddy production techniques that drape the vaporous melodies in a cloud of purple haze as well as the EP's initial release as a limited cassette-only split further epitomize the DIY ethos that inspired everyone and their mother to play around with simple guitar chords and multitracked looping effects. If you ever find yourself in need of a hit of nostalgia for that carefree, lazy summer of 2010 (or have just been curious to sample what exactly we were all on back then), look no further than this little Banana Split from a pair of the era's most undeservingly forgotten gems.