slenderbodies

The Los Angeles-based indie electronic pair Slenderbodies blend gentle rhythms and ethereal guitar lines with subdued R&B singing that stays mostly in falsetto territory. Quietly cultivating listeners through two self-produced projects, the group later joined Avant Garden Records, which put out their breakthrough full-length Komorebi in 2019. Across later recordings the duo enriched their sonic palette with greater layering and nuance while sharpening their craft on the 2022 release Simple Shapes and the 2024 album The Sugar Machine.

Max Vehuni and Benji Cormack first connected as students at the University of California and started composing together during the mid-2010s. Under the Slenderbodies name they issued their initial album Sotto Voce themselves in 2016, presenting audiences with luminous, restrained pop. The EP Fabulist followed in 2017, accompanied by the tracks “Lucid” and “Amnesia.” After aligning with the Island-distributed Avant Garden imprint, the pair rolled out three singles highlighted by the smooth “King,” setting the stage for the Soraya EP that surfaced in January 2019. Their second long-player Komorebi arrived that September and marked a turning point for the project, aided by the sultry cut “Belong.”

A subsequent extended release titled Are We? sustained the focus on dense atmospheres and restrained yet fervent vocal delivery. From that point Vehuni and Cormack began altering their approach by incorporating analog drums and organic instrumentation. These adjustments surfaced clearly on the 2022 album Simple Shapes, whose mood turned more reflective and unsettled compared with prior material. The pair kept developing, shaping another set of tracks that emphasized early-life reminiscence and gentle longing. Issued in 2024, The Sugar Machine emerged as a gleaming, melody-driven pop record featuring exploratory layers and a brisker overall pace.