Jamie Townsend and Ben Dalton are Southern Shores, an electronic duo based in Toronto. The seashores their name allude to are hardly in Manitoba, though. In fact, they are more likely to be in the Mediterranean: Southern Shores’s sound can be decidedly defined as balearic. Their combination of bright synths, fragmented vocal snippets, and rhythm-heavy instrumentals will ring a bell with fans of perennially underrated late-noughties European acts like Air France or Delorean. The pair started out precisely when the balearic wave began fading out in the early 2010s, releasing two EP-length records in 2012’s New World and 2016’s Loja. After putting out another EP earlier this year, Southern Shores are now releasing its sequel, Siena (Part II), and putting both records out as a full-length titled after the historic Italian city.

Despite being inspired by funk and techno, this is not exactly music to dance to. It is rather music to feel good to, which we can all agree it’s the trickier proposition to get completely right. There are a couple of honourable exceptions: the playful bassline of “Tropea” deserves its own dancefloor, though it would face stern competition in the kickdrum-heavy “Bari”. A range of disparate influences are in display throughout Siena, from the jazzy chillout of “Archipel” to the bright garage of “Isola”; however, Southern Shores never deviate from their initial premise: fun, free-form electronic music to transport you to your Mediterranean island of choice. Siena is out October 30 via our friends at Cascine, alongside an extended mix in video form, courtesy of Eena Daou, featuring bonus material and some very trippy visuals. Watch it below.