How To Dress Well

Anyone who knows me will know I am a sucker for a bit of lo-fi hazy goodness when it comes to music from the critically beaten “shoegaze” (favourites being My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive) to what is now known as “dream pop” (High Places, Beach House) . If there’s barely audible or at least grainy vocals low in the mix and a gorgeous swirl of fuzz or feedback breaking up the melody then I’m all over it like butter on hot toast. Unlike the bedroom pop of Neon Indian or Washed Out that doesn’t really evoke any sort of emotion, the tracks I’ve heard from Cologne’s (via Brooklyn of course) one man band, How To Dress Well, are beautifully crafted reverb filled pieces with delicate falsetto vocals reminiscent of early soul and motown music. Similar to Grouper the ambience of the music is juxtaposed by crying vocals which make the music are thoroughly more interesting affair then the “funky sample, hazy vocal, start of the melody, break, sample” format that’s been plaguing the music blogs of late. Also along the lines of the now famous Bon Iver – went to the mountains and killed deer to make an album – tale, How To Dress Well’s Tom Krell spends his days translating a book of post-Kantian philosophy.

Visit How To Dress Well’s blog for more tracks and he has an abundance up yet no physical album.