Stream iji Bubble
iji has existed in various forms throughout the past decade, all centered around the unique pop sensibilities Zach Burba, who now lives in Seattle. Last year, the group put out Whatever Will Happen, their first studio-recorded full-length and their first release through the New Paltz-based label Team Love. That album was inspired by time spent on the road, while its follow-up is inspired by dreams. Bubble grew out dream journals that the band started and shared with one another on tour, and Burba used that experience as a jumping f point to craft an impressionistic, leisurely album that follows the sort messy internal logic dreams. Early single “The Pattern Grows Clearer” is built around a chant-worthy mantra enlightenment; “Free Screening” makes our generation’s device overload sound borderline pleasant; “What’s Happening” twists the paranoia delusions into a bleary ending: “Are you understanding?/ I try to listen in, at the expense all the daydreaming.” But while, as Burba says on that last track, he “rarely knows] what’s even happening,” he turns that confusion and disconnectedness into music that’s an absolute joy to listen to, which you can do below.