Kevin Bronson on April 8th, 2020

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Pure Protein is the nom de tune of singer-songwriter and producer M.W. Powell, a Mississippi native transplanted to Los Angeles. Having circulated in the Cats Purring collective in Oxford co-founded by another L.A.-based Mississippi native, Dent May, Powell has brought his estimable talents west.

Pure Protein’s debut EP, “Winner Goes Home,” arrives May 8, and, judging from the first two singles, the music pulls from several aesthetics: the fuzzier bits of ’90s radio power-pop, the emo revival and the more propulsive of the British dream-pop/shoegaze artists. Touchstones may or may not include the more dialed-back material of Catherine Wheel, Andy Bell-sung Ride songs, early Ocean Blue, lesser-known space-rockers like Fine China and contemporary bands such as Balance and Composure.

Whatever the influences, the largely DIY project (Peter Martin contributes drums) hits a sweet spot with the first two singles. The vaguely world-weary “Happy Birthday,” released Monday, pulls the listener through four lush minutes of ennui and beautiful but familiar chord progressions, all sheathed in a light coat of atmospherics. It sounds like something you should have heard before but haven’t. File under dream-pop nobody had quite dreamed up, until now.

||| Stream: “Happy Birthday”