lomi mae has, quite masterfully, crafted a sound that sits in the gentle embrace of two opposing forces—dream-pop’s fragile shimmer on one side, shoegaze’s more ornate sonic canvas on the other. Sometimes she leans into the former’s haze and drifting moods, sometimes into a broader, lusher cinematic sound of the latter. But more often than not, she is found blurring such boundaries entirely.
Sure, there are echoes of the past— Slowdive in their sparser moods, My Bloody Valentine at their most minimalist—but this isn’t about nostalgia, it’s about forward-thinking. This isn’t revivalism. The underlying sound we find here never really left. It simply slipped out of the mainstream’s rear-view mirror and kept on its course—too smart, too strange, and frankly too good to worry if it was in step with fleeting fickleness and passing tastes. Music for the fringes, sure, but also music for those who listen, actually listen. A step into the future, a nod to the past. Timely and timeless.
Mysterious, moody, floating, sonically disenfranchised, and atmospheric, this is the perfect sonic embodiment of the idea of vertigo and a brilliant first taste of what to expect from her upcoming EP, lotus.
So no, “vertigo” isn’t looking backwards. And it’s not trying to predict a dream-pop revival, although that would be nice. It just is. Music that feels eternal in its presence, that seems like it’s always been there, travelling just beneath the surface of the zeitgeist, buffeted by the sonic winds that steer the changes in fad and fashion, and occasionally finding its day in the sun. Today is such a day.
Those days, days like today, when music like this makes its presence felt, ironically in the most understated of ways, are good days. They are the very best of days.
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