Last year, on a random, uneventful Monday night, I spent £5 on a ticket to go and see a band that I’d loved for a long time live; Keep Shelly In Athens. I even did a writeup on it (HERE) not just because I do for most of the live performances I go to but also because it was excellent; these guys have been producing quality Chillwave since 2010 and I’ve loved them right from the get go; whether it’s their earlier “elevator music” vibe of blissed out 70’s ambience ala In Love With Dusk or their more poppy, lo-fi synth dripping work from Our Own Dream I was smitten and enthralled. To learn that they were producing their debut LP this year was incredible news to me, and when this fresh single was released the hype only grew.

Previous fans of KSIA’s work will undoubtedly see the similarity between this and some of their older material but there is an inescapable polish here that has never previously been present. The vocals are lush and characteristically bleary and enigmatic, even featuring a slight glitch, and the music is significantly more beat orientated and unusually clear; obviously they’ve wisened up in the last few years and really brought their game faces for their first album. The guitar has become much less prominent and the percussion is what really dominates the skyline.

Anyway, this is less a review and more of a “bringing this to your attention” type of deal, with Keep Shelly In Athens releasing their debut album At Home on September 17th via Cascine, so if you liked this I highly recommend giving these guys a listen.