No Vacation is an indie pop duo consisting of Sabrina Mai and Basil Saleh. Based out of San Fransisco, No Vacation has released an album, mixtape, along with various tracks that are reminiscent of the romance and energy of long summer drives. What started out as a dorm room collaboration has led to the establishment of a notable duo in the indie pop scene.
Lightning Bug is the moniker of New York-based musician Audrey Kang, who started out playing music with her group of best friends as part of a personal, private project. She eventually chose to release the music she made online, and although she lacks presence on social media, she managed to gain a small yet loyal following through her SoundcloudandBandcamp profiles. In late January, she released Floaters, her first full-length album, and a few days later, played her first show as Lightning Bug at Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn. With Floaters, Kang experiments with a number of genres, including dream pop (”Lullaby No. 2″, “Gaslit”), shoegaze (”Luminous Veil”), and noise pop (”Labyrinth Song”). She even sneaks in a short, classically-inspired piano solo (”The Sparrow”) and an acoustic-guitar driven track (“Real Love”). Despite the variation in style throughout, Floaters still feels cohesive– largely due to the combination of the softness of Kang’s voice and the atmospheric qualities of the soundscapes that she and her friends create.
