Artistry and Distinction in Record-Making since 1980
LESLIE MEDFORD
"If the USA was eligible for the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest “Leslie’s Dream” would likely win the thing. Then again, in a perfect world Leslie Medford’s latest song wouldn’t be necessary like it is. We at Independent Project Records believe Medford hit the vein of the zeitgeist whilst asleep, and the track might just snowball onto summer dancefloors around the Continent and beyond given the weather these days and this current atmosphere of impending chaos. Medford led The Ophelias (see here!) in the 1980s, and like that band Leslie still dreams big. Infectious and memorable, “Leslie’s Dream” aims to mobilize thought, booty-shaking, and an ecstatic, whooping, mosh pit of change."
Leslie’s Dream is a rare new recording from Leslie Medford, the maverick visionary behind San Francisco 80s psychedelic journeymen The Ophelias (whose career retrospective Bare Bodkin we released in 2022). Bare Bodkin charted the band's genre-defying journey (“a stunning summation of The Ophelias’ offbeat oeuvre”, said Shindig! Magazine, awarding the album 5/5 stars). According to David Fricke (Rolling Stone, MOJO), The Ophelias were “modernists steeped in the vintage, local ethos of a late set at the Fillmore Auditorium - a potent tab of futurist acid-pop…laced with post-punk menace”. Almost 40 years later, Medford is still busy conjuring spacey image-rich reveries. Leslie’s Dream is a slice of moody, brooding psych with a motorik heart and a throbbing political conscience. The accompanying video (see above,
courtesy of Dave Gresalfi) is fittingly trippy.
Hit play and get ready for a wild ride!
