There’s a very good reason one strand of the dream pop/shoegaze genre was dubbed 4AD sound, it was something that characterized quite a number of artists with a different approach but with a certain (sometimes thin, sometimes thick) line that ran through whatever came out of Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent’s label.
Now, many current artists have that 4AD touch in their music, some of them sticking to the original sound concepts, others trying to include new elements and expand that sound further on.
You can easily slot in into the latter category Swedish artist Catharina Jaunviksna, who uses the moniker Badlands and her latest album Call to Love.
Now, her press people call the sound she created here and on her previous album Djinn (she has two previous releases from 2021 and 2016) ‘outlaw electronica,’ but that, or ‘expanded 4AD sound’ or whatever you want to name it, Jaunviksna has definitely the musical means to create a very specific atmosphere that uses subtle beats as a background, on which she builds guitar arpeggios, multi-tracked vocals and quite innovative arrangements, expanding on what is already in the dream pop cannon.
To all that, Jaunviksnahas a very DIY approach as she exclusively writes, records, produces and mixes all material.
Maybe we can dub Badlands’ Call To Love as a call to great atmospheric pop/rock.
