I couldn’t think of a more fitting title for this band’s sound than Daze. No, Biyo isn’t shoegaze, although zoning out to their music is likely (and even encouraged).

Daze draws you in and is convoluted in kind of a poetic, therapeutic way. The Nashville group (at least, I think they’re still based in Nashville) have been quietly composing deliberately genre-shattering tunes that exist alongside their pop peers. 

It would be easy to listen to the first minute or so of “Rain” and dismiss the band as another sad pop group existing in that dreamy electronic realm, but as the layers come in you quickly realize (if it’s your first time listening) that’s there’s so much to this band. This piano driven track has an almost bubbly quality to it, as if Glass Animals met Polyenso.

You’ll find that this pattern continues in every Biyo song. Daze certainly has a more melancholy feel to it overall than many of their previous releases, which are angsty and playful. “Breathing Space” lives up to its title by making cool use of space in the composition. Where there isn’t music is just as important, if not more so, than where there is.

As I listen to “Bottle Up / Break” the sensuality of the band’s sound strikes me, and I start to scan the band’s “About” section on Spotify. The hilarity of the group of playlists that they’re featured on strikes me. They read as follows: “Sex Playlist :),” “Midnight Chill,” “essay writing,” “Songs For Sex” and, one simply titled “vibes.” After reading that, I’m tempted to say “alright, let’s close this document on my macbook, Spotify just summed up this band’s sound better than I possibly could.” The warbling effects, both vocally and otherwise stand out during “Gemini” and seem to wave these various aspects of the band’s music in my face.

If my thought process in writing this review seems really stream-of-consciousness, I apologize. I was caught up in the Biyo Daze. 

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