Tennis - Cape Dory
Producing a wonderful slab of sea air infused pop that stands up to Best Coast, Beach House and other nautical but nicely named US bands currently flying the lo-fi and chill wave flags is no mean feat. But to hail from a landlocked US city, shed your capitalist binds to save for a sailboat, live life exploring the Eastern seaboard for eight months and then return to produce a sweet sounding album based on the experience deserves an extra amount of mariner/musician kudos.
The story of husband and wife duo Patrick Riley and Alaina Moore, twenty somethings who escaped the Denver music scene to embark on an exercise in romantic idealism, almost overshadows debut Cape Dory through its ambition, after all, how much musical inspiration can endless miles of the US Atlantic coastline provide?
The answer for Tennis lies not in quantity, but in quality. Riley's evocative reverb-heavy guitarwork on 'Long Boat Pass' and crashing soundscapes on title track 'Cape Dory' pay just the right amount of homage to 60's SoCal surf pop while Moore's wistful girl-next-door delivery on 'Bimini Bay' and 'Waterbirds' amongst others hits the vintage vocals mark and benefits from polished production values.
Other highlights include 'Marathon', rerecorded following a 7" release last year, and the care-free and melody-laden uptempo track 'Seafarer'.
Despite clocking in at a little under 29 minutes, Cape Dory speaks of sun soaked lazy days on deck, shimmering ocean horizons and good old fashioned [albeit in Technicolour] love and adventure in idyllic coconut groves.
Tennis - described as "retrofuturist" by one critic - could well be soundtracking the US and UK summers on the strength of this recording. Where they head on to from here is anyone's guess...
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