Wunder Wunder - Everything Infinite (2014)

Born under cloudless California sky and bled into leftover tape, Wunder Wunder is the rolling amnesia of a Los Angeles summer, the deathless West Coast, and drinking in the dreams of its young. The debut creation of Melbourne producers Aaron Shanahan and Benjamin Plant, Everything Infinite is an album that captures lost moments spent in the pair’s adopted city of LA and a unique exploration of their unspent ideas.

“Los Angeles is a dreamy place, almost surreal,” notes Shanahan, of the duo’s drastic decision to uproot nearly 8000 miles from their native Australia. “It has continuous unspoilt skies and pastel sunsets, a backdrop of palm trees, and interesting people and houses stemming from many backgrounds in a wash of variety.”

Viewed through the windows on all three sides of the duo’s lofty home studio, endless sunshine and idyllic views of the surrounding Hollywood hills and a silhouetted horizon offered the perfect setting for Everything Infinite’s recordings to take place. “We even have visits from our little hummingbird friends which makes the space a very vibing area to create,” they say, “instead of being locked in a dungeon like studio”. Much like Wunder Wunder’s own summit observatory onto the world, the pair’s relocation offered a unique perspective from which to explore new musical styles and artistic methods by shifting from the ‘indietronica’ sound of their previous Miami Horror project and focusing their attention towards skilled song writing and content.

Recalling the innocence of moments when you were a kid (‘Summers Day’), growing up as a teenager and spending a special time with that certain someone (‘Midnight Hours’), the vapour of childhood memories (‘Coastline’) or dreaming of a place where everything will be alright (‘Dreams of the Fall’), each song touches on the ease of romanticising situations and having sentimental moments. “It almost reminds me of how shows like ‘The Wonder Years’ or the movie ‘Stand By Me’ reflect on special times. It’s important to remember the positive things in life, especially when the world can seem grim,” explains Shanahan.

Whether you put it down to the West Coast’s elevated vitamin D levels or a more positive outlook, it’s clear that Wunder Wunder are karma chameleons blending seamlessly into their new habitat. ‘Midnight Hours’ offers a smooth dose of cool Cliff Martinez night-time retro nostalgia, ‘Trouble in Utopia’ sounds like Animal Collective and Temples exchanging their own campfire stories, and the album’s big pop moment comes via ‘Hail The Madmen’s funky Prince-like groove. Melding swaying, dappled guitars, rasping layers of harmony, dreamy delays and a warm tangle of vintage synthesizers and drums, Everything Infinite is a brilliantly executed concoction of mellow 70s lo-fi chords, the sonic and progressive sounds of 60s psychedelia, a distillation of sun-bleached yearning and the undulating 90s pop sounds of Shanahan’s teenage years; each track its own kaleidoscopic motif that tessellates and reflects light like a shower of sun-kissed sequins.