Beequeen
Sandancing

[Important; 2008]

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Styles: dream-pop, drone
Others: Avrocar, The Legendary Pink Dots
Links: Beequeen - Important

Beequeen have a bit in common with The Legendary Pink Dots, beyond just living in the Netherlands. Both play with the nether-space between goth, psychedelia, and experimental music. But even more so, both bands exude aloof aestheticism – here are musicians who are so deep into strange and particular visions that when the world is allowed inside, it is always on the artists’ terms.

Sandancing is described as being more “song-based” than Beequeen’s past releases, and sure enough, there are songs here (several of them, anyway), and even the dark musical spaces that color the rest of the record are trimmed to fit. To the band’s credit, putting something as blithely poppy as “The Honeythief” next to a deranged chop-and-assemble number like “The Edie Three Step” creates an instant and pleasing tension. Much of Sandancing carries that thread of contrast, but the conflicts are subdued: the spooky ones fade into the dark well before their dreamy counterparts come into view.

Spooky, tense, and withdrawn describe about the furthest extent of Sandancing’s dark recess. Despite the presence of Barry Gray, former Legendary Pink Dots guitarist, there are none of the full-on nightmare episodes of the kind that pepper the Dots’ records. In pace and overall mood, Sandancing is much closer to the work Julee Cruise did with Angelo Badalamenti in the late ’80s.

Some might find the second half, which is dominated by instrumentals, a bit slight by comparison to the first. On the whole, however, it’s an enjoyable album that ought to please fans of the Pink Dots’ later, more accessible work and of dream-pop in general.

1. A While Away 2. Breathe 3. Melt 4. The Edie Three Step 5. The Honeythief 6. Tomorrow 7. The Maypole Song 8. Sandancing 9. There, It Has Been Said 10. The Illogical Song