Sweet Jane

Posted by Tim on October 23, 2011 · Leave a Comment

Sweet Jane are a four piece indie band from Dublin in Ireland - Danda (guitar / vocals), Lydia Des Dolles (vocals), Ruairi Paxton (bass) and Donagh O’Brien (drums) – who play a dreamy variation of shoegaze.

Sweet Jane (© Keith Marshall)

Sometimes writing about music requires a mood, rather than the mood being generated by the music and today I was feeling particularly wistful, so was delighted to have found Sweet Jane, who match my mood to perfection.

I felt wrapped up in a comfortable arm-chair, relaxed and my troubled brow soothed by the dreamy out-put. The band create an ambiance of calmness as their sublimely constructed dreamy shoegaze wafts out of the speakers. That isn’t to say the band are so laid-back you drift off to sleep, in fact far from it. To maintain the quality of the compositions, requires the band to have sympathetic understanding of each other, this is a band who works hard (without it being forced) and deserve more space in the world of music.

The drumming maintains a steady and dramatic force throughout the pieces of work,on occasion the guitars are let out to play with some sweet constructs, though are normally cleverly muted and echoed. Vocals dramatically encase the whole out-put.

As individuals, the band members all stand well on their own, this is a case of 2+2 being much more than 4 and is deserving of an hour or two of contemplation.