Messier 13 - Stay for a While (2025)

There is more than one Athens-based band in love with Slowdive's music? Yes sir! Three years after the world received the debut album from Sugar for the Pill, Messier 13 releases their own and, even if not called after the shoegaze legends' song, their vibes may be even closer to the beloved band.

Especially when you think about the band's first phases with slightly lo-fi sound and psychedelic guitars in the background, accompanying the soft and emotional vocals. But it cannot be said that the the Greeks, whose name is taken from a cluster of thousands of stars, are a cover band. The vibes are similar, but there's more to this music. There is, for example, some experimentations with heavier, louder notes in Apartment that is clearly inspired by more modern nugaze outfits.

The artists admit that their music is meant to touch the "themes of everyday life's fragility, routine, unrequited love and mourning", a perfect fit for the emotional shoegaze. It is melancholic and poignant while also being hypnotic and self-reflection-fueling. And makes me curious about the Greek shoegaze scene even more now.

Stay for a While costs 7 EUR.

Check: Apartment 

Country: Greece

Genre: melancholic shoegaze

Label: Inner Ear Records

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SPC ECO - Hello (2025)

There are a few bands who refuse to publish their work on Spotify or do so in a limited way. And while I respect this decision and back all the efforts for achieving justice in the music industry, my playlist-focused way of listening to music is hurt. One of the bands are the Bandcamp's giants from UK who released their... I can't even count that high. They released ANOTHER great album.

Their signature electronica-heavy trip-hop music with a strong ethereal atmosphere on top is back. The Rose Berlin - Dean Garcia duo (helped, as always, by Jarek Leśkiewicz from Poland) doesn't stray away from what they do best: mixing the melodies with dense electronica and so creating melancholic and psychedelic musical paintings. Those can be extremely catchy and hit-worthy (like the title track Hello) or serving as mood-producing little machines. It's no surprise that the album is dedicated to the late David Lynch. It's the mood that matters.

Hello costs 11 EUR (9 GBP).

Check: Hello

Country: UK

Genre: dreamy trip-hop

SPC ECO - Calm (2017)

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Pothamus - Abur (2025)

The sophomore album that is even better than the debut? It's how it is with the Belgian doomgazers/ sludge metal heads of Pothamus who released their new album via Pelagic making it the most interesting post-metal release of the beginning of the year. The psychedelic meeting the heaviness? Count me in!

This repetitious, tribal-like pace is certainly what strikes the most while listening to Abur. The flow of the tracks is unbelievable, you can start listening to the first track and suddenly realize that it's been almost an hour and you sit mesmerized by the guitar psychedelia. And this doesn't mean that the album is monotonous, quite the opposite, there is space for dance-inducing, high voltage parts and for meditative, musical mantras at the same album.

An important part of the band's philosophy is the way it looks to the Eastern cultures, which can be spotted even by complete laymen in the title of the first track (and I assume the following ones as well). The spiritual component of the Belgians' music is so important for them that the band describes themselves using the phrase "mixing music and metaphysics" as the starting point. In other place, they say about this album that "[the songs] are vessels of meaning and ideas, meant to be carried, reshaped, sung back into the air". For me, the mesmerizing, tribal-like rhythm certainly invites some self-reflecting states.

Abur costs 7.99 EUR.

Check: Zhikarta

Country: Belgium

Genre: spiritual doomgaze

Label: Pelagic Records

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Tremours - Fragments (2025)

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Back in 2022 I posted about a single from a new dreamy band from California (yes, another one) and now I'm happy to say that the band developed into a full-fledged ethereal power, one ready to show their debut album to the world. And you have to know that the Lauren Andino and Glenn Fryatt duo's music is out of the top league.

Andino's vocals are the base of the project's warm and airy vibes. The rather slow and very much cosy melodies fit flow from the very first track like a stream of consciousness. This also reflects what the vocalist says about their work: "Most of our songs center around loneliness. Not necessarily sadness, but the comfort that you can find in being lonely". Being alone in the cosy way. The vocals are supported by the music in which the bass lines are what stands out the most, making me use the ethereal wave tag to describe the band. I like those moments when the music grows out of the background and shines the most as in tad noisier Dark Glasses but my favourite song as to be the melodic, West Coast nostalgia in Devil Town.

The duo is becoming a big deal which you can sense from the fact that the album attracted artists such as Peter Holmström (The Dandy Warhols) and Mark van Hoen (The Locust) as well as Simon Scott of Slowdive who mastered the whole endeavour. 

Fragments costs 9.99 USD.

Check: Devil Town

Country: California, US

Genre: ethereal wave

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Wilson Trouvé - One Life (2025)

The Belgium-based artist, Wilson Trouvé, released an album filled with beautiful soundscapes of intimate and dramatic music, that has all the features of a movie score, the positive and negative ones.

he artist created the album as a "hypothetical film score or documentary on human life and existence" and the structure made of short tracks is meant to reflect the structure of human lives that are, in reality, made of short moments. Those moments are constructed with the help of a range of live instruments, making the whole album feel very close to the audience and especially immersive. I love the music and while I appreciate the idea behind it, I'm not a fan of movie scores, precisely because of what is captured here: the tracks are, basically, too short. I'd love to hear the director's cut of this album!

One Life costs 8.5 EUR (7 GBP).

Check: Day 1

Country: Belgium

Genre: neoclassical soundscape

Label: Bigo and Twigetti

Wilson Trouvé & Wil Bolton - Escape (2021)

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Am Fost La Munte Și Mi-a Plăcut - I Went to the Mountain (2025)

The Romanian post-rockers are one of my favorite bands making the melodic, guitar-heavy kind of the genre (can you tell by the number of times they already appeared on this blog?). And now as the blog is back and the band is back with a new album, we both meet so I can enjoy the well-crafted essence of the post-rock fun.

The band's fifth album shows their evolution towards more progressive sounds with the strong "inclination towards a barefaced, riff-led take on the music [the band] love". The artists also point at some post-metal and stoner elements in their compositions, but I'd say they are not that noticeable to me. I still feel like the focus on the melodies and the love for what the guitars can do is predominant in their music (even if it's slightly heavier). Good, that's what I like about them. 

There is one change I noticed and I don't like. The titles of the tracks (and the album as well, translating part of their head-scratching band name) are now in English. I'm not sure about that. I like the mystery the Romanian ones delivered each time I listened to their albums, but I guess the artists wanted to be more approachable for the "normal" listeners. Nevertheless, a solid album filled with well-balanced tracks.

I Went to the Mountain costs 10 USD.

Check: We Hold Each Other at Current 

Country: Romania

Genre: guitar post-rock

Label: dunk!records

Am Fost La Munte Și Mi-a Plăcut - La Vale (2022)

Am Fost La Munte Și Mi-a Plăcut - La Deal (2019)

Am Fost La Munte Și Mi-a Plăcut - S​-​a Rezolvat. Nu Se Poate.(2017)

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Solkyri - Cranebrook (2025)

The Australian post-rock icons decided to change what we know them of and instead of the melodic guitar-based music, on their new album they put the weight on the minimal but meaningful atmosphere, making Cranebrook sounding more like an instrumental ambient release.

Let's quote the band themselves: "we made something different. It’s slow, at times it’s really slow, but it allows a moment of reflection, a chance to stand still and importantly, rest". And so the tracks are quiet, acoustic, making me think of a slow Sunday somewhere in the country side drowning in sunlight. The acoustic guitar, piano keys and violins make the sound carefree and filled with light which interestingly contrasts the cover art which looks like the band wanted to show how they destroyed the concept of the previous album, Mount Pleasant. Instead of the violent destruction, however, the change seems to be smoother. I'd think of it as a house slowly devoured by the lush green than crumbled from some disastrous blows.

Anyway, the change is clear. "This is a brave leap, but it is one that we are proud to take" add the band members and I'm curious to see if that's the direction they will go in the future as well. I'd be very happy if the answer is yes.

Cranebrook costs 6 EUR (10 AUD).

Check: I Guess I'll Be Leaving Now

Country: Australia

Genre: instrumental ambient

Solkyri - Mount Pleasant (2020)

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