Sweet Trip

San Francisco-based Sweet Trip fused indie pop with electronic music in a forward-looking style that drew from numerous genres. Emerging toward the close of the 1990s, the band blended dream pop, ambient, techno, and drum'n'bass into an expansive, atmospheric sound that paired bright melodies with glitch-driven experimentation on the 2003 album Velocity : Design : Comfort. Scaling back the dense electronic textures, they issued the more streamlined yet energetic You Will Never Know Why in 2009. Near the end of the 2010s the group gained unexpected online traction, prompting their return with the fourth album A Tiny House, In Secret Speeches, Polar Equals in 2021. The 2022 collection Seen/Unseen assembled rarities spanning the band's history.

Producer and songwriter Roberto Burgos established Sweet Trip in the 1990s alongside singer, guitarist, and synth player Valerie Cooper and bassist/drummer Viet Le. In 1997 the trio opened for ambient jungle producer Junior Varsity KM, who was preparing early releases for Darla Records. Impressed by their immersive take on heavy electronic shoegaze, the label accepted a demo, resulting in the 1998 debut Halica, issued as part of the Bliss Out series. A remix EP centered on the track Fish followed, and Sweet Trip became regulars on the compilations Little Darla Has a Treat for You and Drum & Bliss while also reworking material by Takako Minekawa and Club 8. Their more dance-oriented second EP, Alura, appeared in 1999.

Lineup adjustments occurred when bassist Aaron Porter joined in 1998, Le departed in 2000, and drummer Rob Uytingco arrived the same year; the band then delivered the dense, expansive Velocity : Design : Comfort in 2003. Following an extended hiatus, Sweet Trip resurfaced in 2009 with You Will Never Know Why, their most straightforward set of indie pop material to date. Reduced to Burgos and Cooper, the pair periodically shared tracks and experiments during the 2010s, with Burgos also recording under the solo name .blacktunic.

Over time the wider music community embraced Sweet Trip's forward-thinking pop approach, and Velocity : Design : Comfort in particular attracted a devoted cult audience. The album received its first vinyl pressing in 2020, and artwork for Little Darla Has a Treat for You, Vol. 30 depicted the members surrounded by copies of the reissue. That compilation also featured a newly recorded Sweet Trip song ("In Sound, We Found Each Other") plus their remix of Rocketship's "I Don't Know Why I Still Love You." You Will Never Know Why was remastered and reissued in early 2021, preceded by the single Walkers Beware! We Drive Into the Sun. A Tiny House, In Secret Speeches, Polar Equals arrived in May, incorporating every prior facet of the group's sound, from glitchy experimentation to airy psychedelia. An expanded Halica reissue and the 50-track digital compilation Seen/Unseen, containing mostly unreleased material, demos, and a Beach Boys cover, both appeared in 2022; a shortened double-LP edition of the latter was slated for later that year. The Seen/Unseen release coincided with confirmation that Sweet Trip had disbanded in January.