We called Brooklyn’s Uni Ika Ai (pronounced: oo-knee ee-kuh eye) "dream pop’ in July, but their new single ‘Soft in Ice,’ whose video we are streaming below, paints a more complex picture, one of a band not afraid to experiment with not so popular BPMs (the plodding "mid tempo") and harmonic content (dissonance, noise, and an initial melody that’s not exactly a ray of sunshine), but still able to resolve these dark tensions through a chorus that delivers a big "prog-chestral" melodic opening, leading to a dissonant distorted sax solo that David Bowie would have loved to hear. The black and white (but mostly black) visuals beautifully underline the existential content of the lyrics. This would definitely be a candidate to be our video of the month if we only had such a thing!
