“I’m lost, I’m found / Walls are falling down” Zoe Mead cries in ‘Headrush’, the lead single from Dream Chaos. It’s a sentiment that carries throughout Wyldest’s accomplished debut full-length, due for digital, limited vinyl and CD release 1st March 2019 via rising indie label Hand In Hive. The record came together over the course of 18 months tireless work from the London trio, lead by the fearsome creative output of founder Zoe Mead, alongside multi-instrumentalist Mariin Kallikorm – who joined Mead when she arrived in the Capital from Estonia in 2016 – and drummer Jack Gooderham. Often spending nights in their Greenwich studio, the inseparable three drew on their socio-political surroundings and musical influences ranging from the shoegaze of Slowdive to the dark dream-pop of Warpaint to continue forging the unmistakable Wyldest sound. Building on the widespread acclaim for their first two EPs – Dark Matter and Hitchhiker – which ranged from The Independent to SPIN, Drowned In Sound to NME, Dream Chaos is the fulfilment of early promise and proves the power of self-sufficiency, with Mead and Kallikorm writing, producing and engineering the record themselves, before calling on Greg Hughes of acclaimed indie outfit Still Corners to mix. Announcing the album with ‘Headrush’, alongside a UK tour in the the autumn of 2018, welcomed-back a band who feel complete and wholly assured. “‘Headrush’ is a song about loneliness but not in the sense of being physically alone more the sense of being surrounded by people,” explains Mead about the aforementioned first cut from the record. “Speaking from personal experience, the lack of connection with anyone in proximity can create an even more intense feeling of loneliness than the traditional sense of loneliness associated with seclusion. The track stands as a reminder to ourselves to put out positive feelings and be mindful of people around.” And this is typical of Mead’s thoughtful songwriting on Dream Chaos, which touches upon a variety of emotions and blends lyrical insight with a intelligent array of soundscapes. ‘Slowdance / Mind Over Body’ – one of the album’s most progressive numbers – opens with a slow-burning, reverberating guitar riff which sores beneath tidy accompaniment and further ghostly vocals, before a driving bass-synth refrain takes over, highlighting Wyldest’s knack for both blissful shoegaze and infectious pop. ‘Alive’, with its prominent bassline, twinkling synth work and beautifully relatable wordplay – “Looking back never helped anyway / Keep forgetting – offers another example of this dreamy, lo-fi world that Wyldest occupy so effortlessly, while the haunting hue of “Quiet Violet”, which builds into a powerful admission of love, is an eerie journey which follows-on from the Cocteau Twins-esque “Lightweight”.