Liverpool Music Week Picks, part 5: Gardens and Villa

In the final pick for this week's Liverpool Music Week recommendations, we head to sunny Santa Barbara for a melancholic slice of electronica, courtesy of Gardens and Villa.

If ever a band suited a moment in time, it’s Gardens and Villa. Woozy, icy and jittery, this Santa Barbara outfit soundtrack an uncertain world with austerity and just a touch of foreboding. But there is beauty here too, amid the glacial, almost funky synth-driven beats.

Their recording studio roll call of vintage Korgs, pads and drum machines might smack of retro obsessiveness, but somehow, Gardens and Villas’ lo-fi grooves offer an articulate evocation of the state we’re in.

They’re just about as menacing as blissed out electronica can get. Which is to say, not much, but enough to give their winsome noodling the shot of weirdness we approve of.