A Dutch music therapist turned Mexico City-based songwriter with a mellotron and a decade of debt to Bowie, and a Scottish bedroom pop artist stepping into the light with a debut album nine years in the making: dream pop this week is about the distance between where you started and where you’ve arrived.
Harry Kappen – Distant Shore
Harry Kappen’s “Distant Shore” is an expansive, stunning tribute to Bowie and to the courage of people who cross borders without the privilege of choosing to
“Distant Shore” sits at the heart of After the Crossing, Kappen’s fifth album since Covid and his first since relocating from the Netherlands to Mexico City. It’s a big move but it seems like an inspiring one for Kappen. The mellotron at the track’s centre is a deliberate nod to “Space Oddity,” written as a tribute to Bowie a decade after his death, and that sonic choice gives the song a quality of yearning and distance that suits its subject perfectly. Kappen has spoken about the contrast between his own voluntary crossing and the desperate journeys of refugees forced to flee war, poverty and threat, and the song holds that moral weight without becoming didactic. Musically it’s a really impressive piece, getting across that spacey rock vibe incredibly well, with a brilliant vocal performance.
Kappen was born in Groningen and spent his working life across music and music therapy, training as a therapist after extensive studio and performance experience in Dutch rock bands, and going on to work in youth care for over twenty years. He became a multi-instrumentalist through the demands of therapeutic practice, developing the ability to connect musically with clients individually and in families. It’s a rounded musical CV, and one that’s led to an impressive place. A brilliant single, and well worth your ears this week.
Finlay Birch – Inside Your Mind
Finlay Birch’s “Inside Your Mind” is a gorgeous Isle of Mull debut: wonderfully warm, unhurried, and the sound of a exciting new songwriter’s arrival
“Inside Your Mind” is the lead single from Weight Will Unwind, due 12 June, an album that gathers material written across nearly a decade into a single, cohesive statement. On the strength of this single, it’s gonna be a fantastic one. The production, handled with producer and long-time best friend Dylan Cooper, moves Birch decisively beyond the lo-fi bedroom recordings he began releasing during Covid into something warmer and more open. It’s got a genuine atmosphere this one, a Pixies-esque feel at times, but a twinkly, spacey texture that I can’t quite put my finger on, and that I love. Best of all, there’s a great song at the heart of ‘Inside Your Mind’.
Birch’s early independent releases were a deliberate exercise in finding his voice under minimal conditions: bedroom-recorded, lo-fi, built on the instinct that the song mattered more than the production. Working with Cooper has allowed him to test whether those songs hold up when given more space to breathe, and Weight Will Unwind is the answer. The album draws on alternative folk, indie and soft rock, shaped by a writing style that returns consistently to emotional weight and stillness. It’s a zinger of a single and we can’t wait for the album.