Northern Exposure: Memoryhouse, 'The Years' (EP) -- Free MP3

Every now and then, a new band comes along that justifies all the blog hype heaped upon them. Guelph, Ontario duo Memoryhouse's dreamy electro is like falling head over heels in love -- it's easy to become enraptured by composer Evan Abeele and vocalist Denise Nouvion's gorgeously gauzy melodies set to softly washed-out beats.

The pair's been grouped in with the trendy "chillwave" scene, but while Memoryhouse's music does put them squarely within the same framework as acts like Memory Tapes and Toro Y Moi, lumping them into any particular genre -- hipster-approved or otherwise -- does their subtle sound an injustice.

Devised as a project to get through the long Canadian winter, Memoryhouse pairs Abeele's spacey soundscapes with Nouvion's hazy cloud of a voice, skilfully drawing from the best of modern influences without sounding remotely derivative -- quite the feat in an era when genre mashups are so commonplace as to be almost boring.

Memoryhouse's current 7-inch single of their track 'To the Lighthouse' is a limited-edition release, but that song, as well as three others, are available on their self-released 'The Years' EP, while their full-length 'Looms of Youth' drops later this spring on American indie label Arcade Sound Ltd.

Fans of indie dream-pop (early Stars, Memphis, Beach House, etc.) will swoon for the four shimmering tracks on 'The Years' -- 'To the Lighthouse' serves as a stunning introduction, Nouvion's gentle vocals floating atop undulating synths and pulsating beats. The track also manages that tricky perfect marriage of melody and lyrics -- Nouvion evokes an appropriately pensive tone as she intones, "I dream of houses in the sky/And I watch them go by."

'Lately (Deuxieme)' offers up an equally soft-focus vibe, opening with a wash of atmospherics before a gentle beat kicks in just where needed -- the sound evokes the visual equivalent of watercolours, a swirl of soft pastels.

Anchored by a memorable guitar line, 'Sleep Patterns' deviates a little from the template by bringing some '80s influence into the mix , sounding like a modern-day update of a particularly luminous Talk Talk song.

'The Waves' features some of the group's most interesting production, with synth lines that sound almost like an old clavinet, but its buried, fuzzed-out vocal seems almost like an afterthought, suggesting the track may have worked just as well as an instrumental.

At only four tracks long, 'The Years' EP is the perfect teaser -- leaving the listener excited about Memoryhouse's potential, while yearning to hear more as soon as possible.