Bodywash, Ghost Days, Courtesy

Bodywash formed in 2016 as a vehicle for the sonic bond between Chris Steward and Rosie Long Decter. The Montreal duo conjure a dreamscape with airy vocals, intricate guitars and pulsating synths over a heavy rhythmic foundation. In 2019, they released their debut LP, Comforter, which received praise from Bandcamp Daily, NPR Music, Clash Mag and elsewhere. Last year, they returned with their anticipated follow-up, the dark and enveloping I Held the Shape While I Could via Light Organ Records.

Ghost Days is the solo project of Chicago based musician, Alessia Kato. Blending elements of dream pop, post-punk, goth and shoegaze, Ghost Days is a sonic exploration through the dreamscape, leaving behind fragments of nostalgia, bittersweet memories, and the unknown.

Courtesy began back in 2010 in Memphis, TN when Drew Ryan and Kirk Rawlings met and started trading self-indulgent 4-track scrapsand private recordings not meant for others’ ears. Drums and guitars were recorded, chopped, and screwed as the two figured out how to combine their ideas into songs. In 2011, the duo released Idmatic—a collection of collage-based songs constructed via email, crammed with blown out boom-bap drumming and stretched out cassette wonk. By 2012, the duo relocated to Chicago, where they released Slow Bruise in 2015—a darker, colder, and more aggressive effort. They released HEY in 2018, “an unclassifiable electronic blend of off-kilter atmospheric synths, otherworldly vocal harmonies, deep-house grooves, and weirdo-funk bass lines all sewn together via a persistent Oberheim DX drum machine.” (Steve Rosborough, Moon Glyph Records).