Vogue Dots are an experimental dream pop duo consisting of musicians Babette Hayward and Tynan Dunfield from New Brunswick, Canada. Their Mauka EP is their second extended play of the year, and the group makes shimmery, dark, foreboding synth music with guitars that sound a bit akin to Beach House – if Beach House managed to be on antidepressants. You may be surprised to learn that this outfit is Canadian, as they have a sound that would be quite at home in the hustle and bustle of the busy, artsy electro-pop scene of, say, Brooklyn. That would make Vogue Dots to seem rather hip, and they are. They have a distinguishable sound that brands them, with cooing female vocals and spiky guitars rubbing up against icy cold synth lines. While the EP’s first track, “Way With Silence”, may be its least interesting – and that might be because it just sounds like a slightly colder cousin to In the Valley Below’s “Peaches” – there’s certainly enough to satisfy here and make Vogue Dots a band worthy of connecting with.
Second song “Tux” has a remarkable ability to sound just like Fleetwood Mac on a downer, and you can imagine in your head Stevie Nicks singing along to this in a cocaine haze. “Jealous Arts”, with its sliced and diced synthesizer lines, could remotely pass for a techno club track. And “Way Out”, the final song, has a distinctly music box feel to it, as it is fragile and ornate. Even when the EP isn’t quite affecting, there are interesting moments, such as the way the synths give a heavy throb towards the end of “Way With Silence”, giving the song a feeling that it has morphed into something new. All in all, Mauka is a work of art, one that makes you wonder how the band can stretch things further on a proper LP. It’s an appreciable appetizer for bigger and better things, and this group definitely shows that it is in vogue with the times, making an arresting brand of glitchy music.