Solar Bears – Supermigration

Combining starlit electro, ethereal dream-pop, and a fetish-like adoration for pioneering 1980s synth soundtracks, Solar Bears' stew of influences places them almost directly in between retro-futuristic synth-pop acts like College, and electronic shoegaze / dream-pop merchants like Keep Shelly In Athens, whose vocalist Sarah P contributes to the track Alpha People.

Recorded at a professional studio, sonically its a much cleaner, more expansive record than their debut She Was Coloured In, and the vocal contributions, the second coming from revered Air contributor Beth Hirsch, lift the songwriting considerably.

The majestic, Factory guitar-inflected The Girl That Played With Light swaggers and sways with lithe beauty, while standout instrumental track Cosmic Runner combines Moroder-esque synths with fattened hip-hop drums. Our Future Is Underground, featuring Hirsch, is a subdued, reverb-swathed nod to the likes of Beach House, while You And Me (Subterranean Cycles) goes deep into ambient, cinematic shoegaze territory.

Komplex and A Sky Darkly come on like Com Truise, all interlocking, arpeggiated synths and mid-tempo beats, while Alpha People is a sun-bleached ballad, both yearning and uplifting. Aside from the odd misjudged slice of space-age lounge music (Love Is All), which comes off more like muzak, this is a solid, vividly imagined sophomore effort from the Dublin duo.