deary

U.K. duo deary weave hazy dissonance into sweet melodies across love-themed tracks whose title nods to their sound. Their first EP, issued by shoegaze specialists Sonic Cathedral, came out under the band’s own name in 2023. On the follow-up, the 2024 release Aurelia, they set aside abrasive edges in favor of reverberant haze.

Singer-guitarist Dottie, based in London, launched the project with multi-instrumentalist Ben Easton while pandemic restrictions kept everyone apart; the pair connected through shared admiration for Cocteau Twins’ Elizabeth Fraser. After exchanging sketches digitally they moved to joint writing sessions in person, and their second concert ever took place at Sonic Cathedral’s eighteenth-anniversary event in 2022. The self-produced debut single “Fairground,” issued on the same label early the next year, layered shimmering textures, floating vocals, and a breakbeat; Saint Etienne and Augustin Bousfield supplied a remix weeks afterward. That November the track joined additional cuts—ranging from abrasive shoegaze to soft, near-acoustic pieces—on the Easton-helmed EP deary.

For the next outing the group smoothed away those sharper edges, resulting in a dreamy, delay-soaked set produced by Iggy B (known for work with Spiritualized and Penelope Isles) and featuring drums from Slowdive’s Simon Scott. The collection offered six fresh songs, with three bonus tracks appearing on the CD edition, and reached stores via Sonic Cathedral in November 2024.