At first blush, Santa Barbara's Gardens & Villa appears to traffic in unflappably chilled-out post-disco synth-pop. Tug at any of the loose threads on this February's Dunes LP, though, and what seemed like painted-on ornamental bluster reveals itself to be an entire brooding undercurrent — the gauzy pastel melancholy to the album's vamping neon bonfire. (A song called "Echosassy" contains the line "we've depleted all our dopamine," which sums things up pretty nicely.) A few months ago the band released the free EP Televisor, an appealing handful of new songs and Dunes reworks with a distinctly psychedelic undertone, spurred by some recording sessions that sound like they were rather dopamine-depleting themselves. The quintet brings its digital sunset sounds to two different venues this weekend, supported by a different pair of Californian acts each night.
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