★★★★★
This dreamy, surf-pop debut comes from the touring guitarist of Beach Fossils, Z. Cole Smith. He wrote the material alone, but with the help of other notable musicians - including the former Smith Westerns drummer Colby Hewitt - the layers are brought to life. Drums however fall to the background as melodic guitars jangle and float brilliantly between each other, rising and falling like waves in the ocean. It's an album in the true sense, each song a building block on an overall journey.
- www.clashmusic.com
2012-07-19
★★★★★
The debut full-length from this Brooklyn band led by Beach Fossils touring guitarist Zachary Cole Smith is an evocative, beautifully crafted set of atmospheric dream-pop with a shimmering, reverbed sound combining jangly post-punk and surf guitars, driving, occasionally motorik rhythms, hazy, distant vocals and an abundance of melodic pop hooks.
- kexp.org
2012-07-12
★★★★★
On the debut LP by Brooklyn four-piece DIIV (formerly known as Dive, but still pronounced the same way), frontman and songwriter Zachary Cole Smith drifts between the dark and dreamy, channeling bits of new wave, '80s indie-pop, and Krautrock with ethereal instrumentals and reverb-drenched vocals. On first listen to Oshin, what stands center stage are the guitars -- meandering but intricate melodies, lush cyclical layers that set the record's distinct mood...
- thephoenix.com
2012-07-12
★★★★★
What's often forgotten in the inevitable march of progress is that today's good ideas don't have to go bad. Once a trend's heat passes, its better innovations might settle into a new variety of classic cool. In Brooklyn's DIIV, the music of the post-punk and shoegaze eras abandons the lens of nostalgia for the thrill of discovery. The brainchild of sometime-Beach Fossils guitarist Z. Cole Smith, DIIV treats the murky indie '80s as the riptide that pulls the quartet deep into unexpected waters...
- www.avclub.com
2012-07-09
★★★★★
Inevitably, 2012 was bound to see the rise of at least one hotly tipped buzz band from Brooklyn, NY, and here they are. DIIV are led by Beach Fossils guitarist Z. Cole Smith, whose early singles won over tastemakers with their jangling guitars and sun-kissed haze of reverb and echo. And although Smith now has a full band backing him, he never strays too far from the dreamy style of those first releases...
- exclaim.ca
2012-07-09
★★★★★
There's a story about how DIIV got their name because all four members have aquatic star signs - but in truth, they're named "Dive" because their dream-pop constantly evocates liquid, ripples, sunlight twinkling on water. That, and they sound like Slowdive but faster (and less emotive). They turn their delay pedals up way too far and bask in the resultant eddies, but they're too trendy to bother doing much more...
- www.noripcord.com
2012-07-09
★★★★★
The side project of Beach Fossils' Zachary Cole Smith, DIIV has the nectar of its predecessors running through its lo-fi veins. Shoegaze with a retro twist, it becomes clear early into Oshin's first track "(Druun)" that Z.C. Smith is well studied in the career of Robert Smith. But while successfully appropriating The Cure's guitar-driven melancholy, DIIV takes the sound to a much more introspective place...
- filtermagazine.com
2012-07-09
★★★★★
After a bevy of 7-inch releases, incendiary live shows, and blog hype that's gradually built to a fever pitch, DIIV have at last delivered their debut LP, Oshin. Upon first exposure, it doesn't seem highly dissimilar to frontman Zachary Cole Smith's other band and Captured Tracks labelmates Beach Fossils, with whom Smith plays guitar...
- www.undertheradarmag.com
2012-07-09
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