Deaf Center - Reverie (2025)

Somehow this is only the first time the Norwegian duo Deaf Center appears on my blog. It's a shame for me as Erik K. Skodvin and Otto A. Totland create their works of art for over two decades now. But their dark improvisation had to eventually turn up here and I'm glad it's this beautiful, yet unsettling album.

The new album includes two long compositions that balance the darker and unnerving atmosphere with the beauty of piano notes. The slow pace of the darkness that is woven into this music makes me think of a winter morning that will turn into a bright day but for now is still cold and unwelcoming. The album was recorded live and, as it is mentioned on their Bandcamp page, "as always, the duo favours improvisation, and what emerged on this evening turned out to be a truly magical encounter". The piano, cello and guitar sounds glued together with dark electronica give out peculiar but addictive vibes.

Reverie costs 7 EUR.

Check: Rev

Country: Norway

Genre: dark neoclassical

Label: Sonic Pieces

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Barrens - Corpse Lights (2025)

Their 2020 debut was a shock to me. How can you include such fantastic post-rock music on your first ever album? No wonder I recognize the Swedes as one of my biggest discoveries within the genre in recent years. Now it's time for a difficult step: proving your value on the second album. And, surprise, surprise, Barrens took the step with extreme grace.

The release starts strong with my two favourites: The Derelict and Sorrowed. Those tracks have everything: the engaging but not cringey melodies, the flow, the heaviness to the sound. These are absolute hits if post-rock music can generates hits at all. These must be the pinnacles of the live gigs (I don't know yet, but hopefully I'll find out if that's true soon). They are the parts of the album that will be remembered. After that duo, the Swedes step on the brake pedals and try to enchant the audience with some ambient atmosphere developing into slower grandeur-filled pieces, but, I have to say, I like them best when they are fast and furious.

The album is a well-balanced one. The way the band combines the melodic fragments with darker and heavier ones makes me think that any post-rock fan will surely like this album, but perhaps for different things. I like the darker and heavier, but also faster parts and can honestly say that it's a real continuation of the fantastic debut.

Corpse Lights costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: Sorrowed

Country: Sweden

Genre: atmospheric post-rock

Label: Pelagic

Barrens - Penumbra (2020)

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The Stargazer Lilies - Love Pedals (2025)

I know the American band thanks to the regretfully discontinued Spacefest that used to create unforgettable psychedelic Novembers back in the day. The rays of the hazey sun The Stargaze Lilies' music is so good at providing, can still make my autumns warmer thanks to another great album from the Pennsylvania-based band.

Their sixth album opens in the best possible way: with an intriguing and noisey riff that automatically glued my attention to the music. And since the rougher guitars are skillfully balanced with the airiest of vocals and tropical-ish background effects, the listening session create a safe space for half-dreaming with tears in your eyes. Something like listening to Still Corners but less dreamy and more noisy. Melancholic summer memories? Me like that.

But the Americans are not such one-dimensional artists, it's not all about dreamy melancholia. There are parts that literally drown in guitar noise (By Your Side) or are based on My Bloody Valentine-esque pedal weirdness (the beautiful Shining Yellow). Lilies can create both intimate atmosphere and grand, almost orchestral one to overwhelm the audience. And sometimes both of them in one song. To me the versatile and yet coherent approach to dreamy music means that the duo is now very, very experienced and really knows what they do. Is it their best time yet?

Love Pedals costs 9 USD.

Check: Ambient Light

Country: Pennsylvania, US

Genre: warm shoegaze

The Stargazer Lilies - Cosmic Tidal Wave (2022)

The Stargazer Lilies - Lost (2017)

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OutControlJoys - S/T (2025)

The Nepalese band OutControlJoys have recently released their debut full-length album and it makes me, once again, amazed how great music can be born in the most distant places and thanks to Bandcamp find its way to my speakers. Because indeed, the self-titled debut is top-shelf DIY shoegaze noisy music.

Already the instrumental intro lets you know that these guys know how to create engaging and immersive guitar compositions. It's melodic but also noisy, just how we like it. And it's even before the airy vocals are introduced! From the second track, Paribartan, the music turns real shoegaze. And I'm not talking some indie rock with hazey elements. No, it's old-school shoegaze, maybe also because of some lo-fi vibes that make the whole thing perhaps noisier and airier than it otherwise would be. Which is great! 

And yes, this is my first ever Nepalese artist on the blog! Woo-hoo for all finding-new-music-from-all-over-the-world enjoyers! I really recommend trying out the band's debut album to all indie shoegaze lovers.

The self-titled album costs 7 USD.

Check: Paribartan

Country: Nepal

Genre: DIY shoegaze

Label: Ris Records

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Harbors - When We Are Free (2025)

When two acclaimed neoclassical artists start a new project together, you know it should be good. But when they are also a couple, it's a strong lead that the project will be also very emotional. Hollie and Keith Kenniff created Mint Julep and Meadows before, now they are known as Harbors.

This is my favourite kind of a soundscape: one that feels calm, but also lively. When I know there is many things going on around me, but the whole thing is relaxing and inviting. It's like watching fireflies on a summer night. You are aware that they appear here and there, but it doesn't make the night any less peaceful. And it's the piano keys, they are the fireflies. You have to look for them to appear and then don't lose track of time trying to follow them.

When We Are Free costs 10 USD.

Check: A Portrait of Time

Country: Oregon, US

Genre: lively soundscape

Label: Nettwer Music Group

Hollie Kenniff - For Forever (2024)

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Blak - Mont Solitud (2025)

Post-rock so complex that you can't really keep up with everything that goes on and yet everything sounding coherent and atmosphere-inducing? This is the Catalan band Black's sophomore album called Mont Solitud and the sheer energy of the track here, together with the perfect execution of the ideas, makes me wanna say that it is my favourite post-rock album of the year so far!

I don't know how to explain it, but this music feels so genuinely wild. It's vibrant, it's wild, it's a bit chaotic. The noisy parts are very noisy, the calmer parts feel like the calm before storm. To me it's clear that the artists feel the music, that there is notching artificial in their compositions. One more thing that facilitates this feeling is that the second track of the album, La solitud és gàbia, features my favourite Chinese post-rockers, An Corporation, and if any music should be called the most genuinely energy-filled, it would probably be them.And yes, the results are spectacular.

The band describes their music as "an instrumental journey through the many faces of solitude", but to be honest I don't hear the solitude here. Rather the opposite, there is so much going on in every second of the album, there are guest artists, there is the special "collaborative song I Am You, featuring the voices of 50 people who joined in to sing with us", which I don't know what it is about, but doesn't sound solitaire at all. But perhaps the artist's wanted to explain that even though you are joined by many people in your life, in the end, you are alone anyway. Sad, but true. And explained in a fantastic way.

Mont Solitud costs 7 EUR.

Check: La solitud és gàbia

Country: Catalonia /Spain

Genre: complex post-rock

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Hiroe - Wield (2025)

They may be seen as US new big post-rock group or maybe it's just a media stunt. Nevertheless, the truth is that the Pennsylvania band of Hiroe released their second album which is as good as the first one and includes the same heaviness of guitar music as the debut. So maybe it is true after all?

You can safely say that their music has a lot borrowed from heavier, metal music. The guitars feel overwhelming, sometimes there is some of the guitar riff racing (Collider!), but the thing that strikes me most is the pace the drums keep in some tracks. Makes you feel alive that one. That's why, if we play the genre game, I'd say Hiroe is the band right on the border of post-rock and post-metal, right in the crossfire if the front moves one day.

Being a thematic continuation of Wrought, Wield comes back to the thoughts on the "transformation stemming from personal loss within the context of a devolving world, against the backdrop of the global pandemic" and I don't know if it's just me, but the sound of the music makes it quite a bleak realization in the end. Still, with Mario Quintero as producer and Cult of Luna's Magnus Lindberg mastering, the album feels fantastic quality-wise.

Wield costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: Tides

Country: Pennsylvania, US

Genre: heavy post-rock

Label: Pelagic Records

Hiroe - Wrought (2022)

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