Chill Beats for Your Shoegazing Soul

School of Seven Bells is an electronic indie three piece who mesh elements of dream pop and shoegaze into their music. The band was formed in 2004 by Benjamin Curtis (Secret Machines) along with identical twins Alejandra and Claudia Deheza, formerly of On-Air Library!. According to their info page on Ghostly International (band's label), SVIIB (as those in the know call them) got their name after Alejandra discovered a 3 AM airing of a PBS show about the School of Seven Bells. Apparently, they were a mythical, yet-to-be-disproven South American pickpocket academy that may have existed in the '80s. The thought of "seven minds working as one appealed to her, as did the phrase’s cryptic musicality" and thus, the nucleus of creativity was spawned. (Source:http://ghostly.com/artists/school-of-seven-bells)

The group's full length debut, Alpinisms, explores the heights and depths of electronica. The album was released last October. Curtis overlays the double time, ethereal vocals of the Deheza sisters with multi-layered rhythms and beats as well as undulating guitar riffs. Tracks like "Face to Face on High Places", "Half Asleep" and "Connjur" (my own personal Everything But The Girl-styled jam) have a new rave quality to them and show that dance music need not be bouncy and high octane. After a string of EP's and single releases, SVIIB seem poised to capture the indie music landscape, one raver at a time.