- An ode to the golden days of San Francisco's rave scene.
- These days, San Francisco is more synonymous with the shiny tech hubs of Silicon Valley than its nomadic network of underground raves, but there was a time when it came alive with the clandestine thump of psychedelic dance music. During the late '80s, the UK rave phenomenon found wild and fertile ground in San Francisco's countercultural terrain, where it flourished through the '90s—until technology and money showed up and altered the landscape.
East Of Oceans, AKA Brock Van Wey, has released a steady stream of records, mostly as bvdub. He came up as a DJ and promoter during San Francisco's golden age. On his latest EP and R&S debut, Neverlasting Love, Van Wey pays tribute to an era "that brought everything into being; pure elation, pure drive, pure escape, and frankly, just hearing shit that was the fucking jam."
Across three afterhours-primed tracks, Van Wey captures some of that original '90s essence with the misty-eyed fervour of someone who was actually there. Anchored by tripped-out breakbeats, soothing pads and pitched-down vocals, the EP's soft-focus title track dances a haunting line between moody and euphoric, saluting the atmospheric textures of ambient techno.
This spectral, looped presence also haunts the choppier "Broken Seas," while bursts of Balearic flavour and the drum & bass pulse of "Hard Red" cast a brighter light. Although that track's complex tangle of percussion hints at a more forward-facing sound, this EP is steeped in nostalgia. Whatever your take on that, there's no denying the infectious euphoria that flows freely, and that's hardly a bad thing.
TracklistA1 Neverlasting Love
B1 Broken Seas
B2 Hard Red