Łabandzi Śpiew: 2025

Monochromatic Visions - REFORM (2022)

czwartek, 24 lipca 2025

Osnova - Rise the Sun (2025)

Sometimes, the melancholic and dreamy music fans also want to dance. Three years after their debut album, the Californian trio brings another occasion to do just that with their second album rightly called Rise the Sun.

Jean-Claude Vorgeack and Sam Ribeyro's extremely airy guitars that blend together with drums into a warm and ethereal mist represent the dreamy side of the Americans' music. However, it is counterbalanced with high-pitched, fresh and distinctive vocals provided by Caroline McLaughlin. This is not your ordinary pairing and it bears extraordinary fruits as well: the mist becomes energetic and full of hopeful melody. Especially when the backgrounds become dominant as it is the case in the title track.

I appreciate this slightly different take on the dreamy music. maybe not everything has to be melancholic to the core. With this kind of lively, melodic music, it really is possible to raise the Sun.

Rise the Sun costs 6 USD.

Check: Blame the Fates

Country: California, US

Genre: lively dream pop

Label: Dune Altar

OSNOVA - OSNOVA (2022)

środa, 23 lipca 2025

Oak - EP (2025)

Oak is both a tree and a music band from France. As one could guess, the artists are very closely rooted (haha) to the allegory provided by the band's name, stating, amon other things, that it was "planted in 2009". It's been a while now and Oak don't have a massive discography so it's always a good thing that they decided to show something to the world with this year's EP called EP.

"Oak has not yet reached its canopy" is another of quotes form the band and I can't help but wonder what that will look like when it finally happens. Because the little material we have suggests that there is a huge potential for massive, atmospheric post-rock sound somewhere in Oak's core. The EP is short, even if the second track reaches some impressive time stamp, so it's very difficult to access, but I like what I hear. The guitar-oriented, classic post-rock doesn't really seek tons of melodies, rather it's focused on the heaviness of the sound and this is something I appreciate very much. I will keep my eyes on this one (another one with so many fantastic ones around!) French post-rock collective.

EP costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: Fear Carries the Grace of Stillness

Country: France

Genre: heavy post-rock

Label: ITAWAK RECORDS

wtorek, 22 lipca 2025

Gloios - Polvorosa (2025)

A beautiful mess from Brazil; Rafael Xavier aka Gloios, the artist from São Paulo, himself calls his new album a mess that encompasses a shitload of various music genres. But the coherent slowcore warm atmosphere brings everything together, making Polvorosa a beautiful, musical journey.

Let me quote the artist further: "post-rock, ambient music, metal, dream pop..." but also Brazilian music like MPB, forró, samba, xote, baião which I know nothing about, all of this makes up the third album in Xavier's discography. Everything is based on slightly industrial electronica, but there is also some, very distant, very echoey and everything but clear vocals. And it doesn't really matter because you can hear the genres like you can see pebbles in muddy water. There is something there, but who knows what exactly? And the water is warm and welcoming, slightly terrifying, but you have to go in and let it go.

I love it when music clearly shows where it comes from and you can have little doubt that this is the sound from Brazil. There is so much going on there: various rhythms, paces, dance moves, everything slightly hidden but also clearly felt. Just listen to the weirdness of Boiafria or my favourite, very mysterious Ficha.

Polvorosa costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: Ficha

Country: Brazil

Genre: ethereal eclectic slowcore?

piątek, 4 lipca 2025

Neue Welt - Spánek ti bude peřinou (2025)

Before attending a festival, I have a habit of listening to each and every artist performing there not to miss anything interesting. And this brings sometimes fantastic results as has been the case of the Praha-based band I discovered before this year's Pohoda Festival. I can't wait to hear their artsy noise rock live!

The band makes me think of this year's comeback made by the French band Kwoon. Similar vibes when it comes to the artsy approach to rock that meets incredible noise where necessary. Also the instruments feel familiar: not everything is done by the guitars here. Quite the opposite, the big role is played by violins and piano keys that both add up to the incredible atmosphere of the new release. There are segments that feel like instrumental ambient, some other even almost like a big band meeting dark jazz. But most of the time, the Czechs focus on their beautifully weird art rock meets folk meets post-rock compositions.

I love every aspect of the album. The louder parts feel euphoric, the slower feel artsy, the ones with vocals are melodic and captivating. I genuinely feel like I discovered a hidden gem just outside of my country's borders. And as already mentioned, soon I'm gonna see the band live at Pohoda. If I survive til the middle of the night that is.

Spánek ti bude peřinou costs 7 EUR.

Check: Kdybych brečet mohl

Country: Czechia

Genre: noisy art-rock

Label: 6000 Ωveček

czwartek, 3 lipca 2025

Tylko Nieświadomi Przeżyją - Tylko nieświadomi przeżyją (2025)

I'm gonna be honest: despite the fact that the band comes from my city and that I've seen some of those artists performing live in other projects, I got to know about this release in an exceptionally weird way. From my Chinese friend (good sides of globalization here). And it's good that it happened because this new project lies exactly on the border of my comfort zone as their music is as post-rocky as it is jazzy.

The soundscapes on the debut release are vast. The pace is slow and slowly developing. The sights are surreal. This is all thanks to the wide range of instruments appearing on the album, including saxophone, glockenspiel, harp... This chaotic line up makes up a psychedelic yet coherent whole, an orchestration of various sounds that go from impro-like dark jazz passages to louder, post-rock-esque sections and back. The single Nigredo is a perfect example here: slowly rising up to a jazzy but also loud and atmospheric crescendo. The longer tracks are indeed constructed with a similar idea in mind, making me feel like at my post-rock home.

The parts outside of my comfort zone certainly include the omnipresent saxophone (sorry, not my vibe) which, I have to admit, sounds pretty alright. I do also prefer where the music gets louder, more involving and slightly heavier, but there is a lot of space for the lovers of the instrumental ambient and dark jazz, mysterious soundscapes. I hope to see the band live soon, it must be so much fun!

Tylko nieświadomi przeżyją costs 6 EUR (25 PLN).

Check: Nigredo

Country: Poland

Genre: post-jazz

środa, 2 lipca 2025

Monochromatic Visions - Change Who You Are (2025)

It's only four tracks, but when something is that good, who cares? I have mentioned the British band a couple of times before and it's no surprise as their music makes a perfect blend of the noisy and the melodic. It was proven on their new EP.

Shoegaze, new wave, pop music. They all have their place within this short release. The music here feels light and unbelievably catchy, but there is a hint of a darker atmosphere and the omnipresent noise somewhere in the backgrounds, like something you catch with the corner of your eye but can't really focus your sight on. All for compositions are worth checking out, including the most poppy one, the first song of the album, I Told You. And frankly, I like it the most, probably because it's as catchy as it can be, a candidate for a summer hit within the noisier offstream world.

Change Who You Are costs 14 EUR (12 GBP) (which is slightly ridiculous to be honest).

Check: I Told You

Country: UK

Genre: melodic ethereal wave

Monochromatic Visions - Monochromatic Visions (2017)

wtorek, 1 lipca 2025

Aortes - Carrion (2025)

It took 6 years and one change of name for the Lithuanian post-metal outfit (now called) Aortes come back on my blog. And there is a good reason for that too as their new album (second under this moniker and 5th in general) is a masterful dose of heavy atmosphere and post-hardcore anger.

The artists themselves think highly about the release, calling it a "brand new and more mature sounding album" and I have to agree. It is no simple post-metal/hardcore music here, it's more nuanced, deeper and more attractive face of the genre while still retaining the clue of this kind of sound: energy and expression. However, parts such as Carrion with the spoken word vocals or the addition of the saxophone sound in the same song, or an entire ambient intermission in Black Mold make me appreciate the release even more. Not to mention that they, simply speaking, turn up the atmosphere of this dense music.

I can't stress enough how good the atmosphere is on this album. It's unsettling like an alarm siren, it's heavy like a tank, it's slow and steady and suddenly very fast. I love it, especially on When We Cease, a track that left me lying on the ground overwhelmed by its weight. Fantastic stuff.

Carrion costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: When We Cease

Country: Lithuania

Genre: noisy post-metal

Autism - Have You Found Peace? (2019)

piątek, 20 czerwca 2025

Sugar for the Pill - LUV (2025)

I've seen Sugar for the Pill this year at Automatic Noise in Amsterdam in January and it was one of the highlights of the festivals. The band with probably the least difficult inspiration to decipher in the world, released their sophomore album last month and showed why this was the case.

Good shoegaze can be found anywhere in the world. I'm not very familiar with the Greek scene, but Sugar for the Pill is an outfit that proves this thought. Led by the airy vocals and light melodies, the band released a beautiful collection of songs that are as ethereal as they are melodic. A selection of certain hits for every (other) Slowdive lover. This ability to marry the airy and the catchy is what draws me to their music and songs like Anelia, Komorebi and, especially, Colours prove it over and over again.

The album offers no break from the melodic, fast-paced music that, maybe because of the album title and the overall visual setting, feels... cute. Light and carefree, dreamy like a dream you don't want to wake up from. And one that, when it's finally over, makes you immediately miss it.

LUV costs 10 EUR.

Check: Colours

Country: Greece

Genre: catchy shoegaze

Label: Make Me Happy Records/Shelflife Records

czwartek, 19 czerwca 2025

Favorite Obsession - Bliss (2025)

Four years after their debut EP and only a month or so after their live appearance at Kraków's Shoefest, the young Czech band Favorite Obsession released their first ever full-length album entitled in the most shoegaze way possible. Bliss makes a promising debut with a number of melodies that are as catchy as one would like.

Recorded "in-between line-up changes, mental breakdowns and gender changes", the album presents a case study of indie rock music with a heavy influence from shoegaze and dream pop genres. There is a healthy dose of noise in this material (which was especially noticeable live!), but it's more about melodies, the fun from singing them aloud, the energy coming from the stage. At least in most of the songs because (Inside) I Bloom makes a beautiful, very intimate and emotional (just take a look at the lyrics, the song starts with "20 year old crisis/6 strings are helping me survive") ballad to provide some balance.

There is something weird going on in Taxi Driver and I can only assume that it's a way to stress that (Inside)... is such an important part of the album. If this is true, I'd make the silence shorter. Because it's not the end of the release! Of the engaging, catchy and very emotional release to be truthful.

Bliss costs 7.5 EUR (180 CZK).

Check: (Inside) I Bloom

Country: Czechia

Genre: noisy indie rock

Label: Golden Hive Studios

środa, 18 czerwca 2025

Lazy Legs - Tower (2025)

It's been 8 years (!) since the Oregon band Lazy Legs appeared on this blog with their EP called Chain of Pink. Now, after what seems to be some changes in the line-up, they released their third album and enchanted me with their minimalist yet very airy take on slowcore kind of noise music.

The artists admit to take inspirations from a variety of genres, mixing "shoegaze, grunge, slowcore and doomgaze" into one, moody kind of music. It surely is slow, it's very airy and based on the rougher nature of guitar sounds. It feel also a lot like a letter of admiration to minimalist rock music usually made by duos (I'm thinking The Kills, but maybe it's because I've been listening to them a lot recently). It's maybe because the band now only consists of Laura Wagner and Michael Tenzer while before, there was also Nicholas Piontek playing drums. Regardless of the reasons, the band's music feels now closer to the audience, honest and beautiful in this desert, grunge way.

The rough guitar makes here a beautiful dialog with vocals that are not only made airy. They are literally very often just backing vocals playing the main part of the song. It makes the compositions well-balanced but also very, very dreamy regardless of the heaviness of the music.

Tower costs 5 USD.

Check: Rot

Country: Oregon, US

Genre: shoegazey slowcore

Label: Wild Patterns

Lazy Legs - Chain of Pink (2017)

wtorek, 17 czerwca 2025

我夢見長頸鹿對我說 [The Giraffe Told Me In My Dream] - Velvet Distortion (2025)

The "overly noisy, overly sweet" band from Taiwan with probably the craziest name out there is back with a new release! Six years after their first EP, the noisy machine gives us another small taste of what they can do with shoegaze music.

And I really mean shoegaze. It's not noisy rock, it's not atmospheric dream pop. It's very loud, very noisy and very dreamy shoegaze, true to the genre's origins. Driven by vocals that are absolutely gorgeous and ephemeral to the limits, making the audience feel as if they were immediate transported to their deepest, most intimate dreams. The music is a perfect fit here: noisy where it should be, euphoric when needed, slow and moody in other parts. A match made in heaven.

The only downside is that, once again, it is only a taste of what the Taiwanese are capable of. Basically three songs (with a short introduction) already shows a lot, but one would like to experience more. And more frequently than once in six years.

Velvet Distortion costs 4 USD.

Check: Glimpse

Country: Taiwan

Genre: true shoegaze

我夢見長頸鹿對我說 [The Giraffe Told Me In My Dream] - Slowfall (2019)

piątek, 13 czerwca 2025

Øystein Skar - Hem (2025)

The Norwegian pianist, most known for his role in the synthpop band Highasakite, Øystein Skar have released his solo debut via Moderna Records and the next sentences are probably very easy to predict: it's moody, it's atmospheric and it's the Norwegian landscape translated into piano notes.

The album is said to "merge the lyrical beauty of piano with the dynamic energy of electronic music, resulting in a fusion that is both innovative and compelling", but I have to say that I hear mostly the former. Hem, I'm sure it's not a coincidence that the title means "home" as the image of Norway is quite vivid in his music, at least in my ears, is all about slow, subtle piano compositions. There are parts where the faster, jazzy part of Skar's music education is audible, but it's rare. And yes, I'm happy they are. I'm here for the ambient music played on piano keys.

Hem costs 8 EUR (12 CAD).

Check: Ljos

Country: Norway

Genre: piano soundscape

Label: Moderna Records

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T E S A - C O N T R O L (2020)

czwartek, 12 czerwca 2025

Concepcion Huerta - El Sol de los Muertos (2025)

Sound textures, audio soundscapes, narratives delivered by notes only. Concepcion Huerta is a Mexican artist whose drones and ambient sounds create an emotional cocktail deeply rooted in her geographical background. The veins of the world are open again, just like the cover art suggests.

This emotional piece was created "entirely within a subharmonic framework and meticulously processed through tape manipulation". It has to be said that not all of the sounds here are gonna be pleasant, in fact, it's quite the opposite: some of the tracks are designed to evoke nightmares of deep undergrounds and the worlds of the dead. There is, however, no notion of morality here I think, described pictures are not terrifying or charming, they just are. It's the truth about the world as seen by the artist and as transcribed into these monumental soundscapes.

El Sol de los Muertos costs 7 EUR.

Check: El Sol de los Muertos

Country: Mexico

Genre: droney soundscape

Label: Umor-Rex

środa, 11 czerwca 2025

T E S A - I N T E R V A L (2025)

The Latvian TESA is a band that never disappoints. Never. The Baltic giants create their metal-like heavy post-rock or rock-like light post-metal with grace and with consistency that characterize only great artists. Although their new album is entitles Interval, it doesn't feel like it's any kind of transition or pause. It's as good as ever been and ever will be, I'm sure of it.

The Eastern equivalent of the French heavy noise of Year of No Light start the album with a fast and heavy hit in the face. While the long tracks change pace and melodies very often, the first seconds of the album are here to remind you, dear listener, what are you signing up for. A hurricane of massive sounds that are designed to spare no one. It's interesting that the tracks are so diverse: there is many sudden changes so when the listener is emerged in one of the passages, they are brutally waken up from the trance by a different melody, different direction the track suddenly switches to.

Nevertheless, the sound here is quite literally overwhelming and forcing you to stop and fall in love with its relentless power. This is the very nature of TESA.

I N T E R V A L costs 9 EUR.

Check: Interval II

Country: Latvia

Genre: massive post-rock

Label: My Proud Mountain

TESA - G H O S T ( 2015)

wtorek, 10 czerwca 2025

Go With Strangers - Ave, Reverie (2025)

Remember when mum used to tell you not to go with strangers? Well, you definitely can do that with this one. Eugene San is based in Malaysia and makes music as one-man band to "face his social anxiety". And the results? A fantastic set of noisy shoegaze songs.

I love how immersive the noise can be. When listening to songs like Breathe In, what you breathe in is the reverbing air and dreams that flow around trying to drown you in. And sometimes it is the shoegazey, dense, overwhelming kind of noise, but sometimes it can go in more surprising directions with some metal riffs in Misery (You'll Never Break Me). And I really can hardly say which song here is my favourite. The artist has a very special gift of writing very well-leveled compositions and every one of them is worth the listerner's attention. In the end, I chose Further with its captivating melody and tasty noise, but it could as well be any other track.

Interestingly enough, the album was made out of "fascination with the feeling of “Sonder” (...), which is the realisation that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own – populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and craziness", a theme good for a whole book, but really works as a base for a music album as well. The artist concludes that the album may be "a warm greeting, and also a bittersweet farewell, to dreams and daydreams". So it matches everyone's life at some point, no doubt about it.

Ave, Reverie costs 8 USD.

Check: Further

Country: Malaysia

Genre: immersive solo shoegaze

piątek, 6 czerwca 2025

Maria Somerville - Luster (2025)

Taking inspirations from everywhere, but mainly her home Ireland, Maria Somerville creates dream pop with many faces, but one soul: it stays intimate and close to the audience thanks to the slow pace and ethereal vocals. The artist's sophomore album is all about this close artist-listener proximity.

On this album, the artist's range goes from ambient pop to acoustic dream pop up to almost industrial-like tones. But generally the vibes revolve around the slowest, most intimate of genres. A beautiful voice, background hums and maybe an acoustic guitar is all the artist needs to enchant us. With Projections, she proofs that it doesn't mean that her songs are not catchy, but generally the melodies are less important than the airiness and softness of the sound. And softness is what I seek on albums like this.

Luster costs 12 EUR (9.99 GBP).

Check: Projections

Country: Ireland

Genre: intimate dream pop

Label: 4AD

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czwartek, 5 czerwca 2025

Benefits - Constant Noise (2025)

The band who "write songs about things that concern [them]" and really, all of us, is back with a sophomore album. And I can safely say that they only get better with their fascinating and inspiring blend of poetry and synthetic music. Whatever you need to hear right now is probably already on Constant Noise.

I can't think of many artists who make music quite like Benefits. The spoken word poetry is, of course, the first thing that catches your attention. It is a lyrical take on post-punk social commentary focus, but there's more to it. I'm afraid not being a native speaker, a lot of it flies above me, but what I can catch, is striking enough. That's why those moments when lyrics about war and injustice is matched with disco-like electronica is especially shocking. But the music varies basically from track to track with harsh guitar noise and atmospheric drones as important as the electronic notes.

This combination of poetry and guitars makes me think of last year's album from Overhead, the Albatross, but maybe because since the recent dunk!festival, they are on my mind regularly. What also certainly deserves attention is the track recorded together with Peter Doherty of The Libertines which is a nice little thing that can brighten the day of an indie rock veteran like myself.

Constant Noise costs 9.5 EUR (7.99 GBP).

Check: Land of the Tyrants

Country: UK

Genre: eclectic lyrical post-punk

Label: Invada Records

środa, 4 czerwca 2025

Waves Crashing - Effection (2025)

The Cascadian shoegaze is not something I talk about every day, but maybe it'll change since Waves Crashing, a band from Washington state, released their debut album and it kind of rocks. If you need some tasty retro noisy vibes in your life, this is the address.

The retro vibes here are omnipresent. It is a noisy rock blessed by RIDE and The Jesus and Mary Chain: the melodic guitar music with a layer of fuzziness to make it even more beautiful. And the melodic aspect is dominant here, my favourite track, Comatose is a perfect example here. The way an unnerving and disturbing word is shaped into a fantastically catchy and airy chorus is done in a true classic shoegaze fashion. Just look at it: "Something out my window/I feel it close/Try to stay normal/In a comatose".

And what accompanies the lyrics is guitar music as fuzzy as one should expect. There are riffs that make it outstanding (like the finish in In My Head), but they are mostly just complimenting the airy vocals. Which is not a bad thing. I personally thing that the more atmospheric ballad-like the band gets towards the end of the release, the slightly less interesting the music. Slightly. Good thing that they finish with a remix of Comatose as this tells me they know they have a real hit in their portfolio.

Effection costs 9 USD.

Check: Comatose

Country: Washington, US

Genre: retro noise rock

Label: Neon Sigh / Audiomanic Music

Glazyhaze - Just Fade Away (2023)

wtorek, 3 czerwca 2025

Glazyhaze - SONIC (2025)

Two years after their debut album, the Italian, "gritty yet dreamy" shoegazers, for whom the noise and the melodies can easily coexist together, are back. The new album takes the audience for a brief, but wonderful trip into the hazy soundscapes of indie rock melodies and fuzzy guitars.

The band have supported or will soon support quite big players of the noisy pop-rock music (Slow Crush, The Raveonettes, Softcult) which is great. Nothing makes me as happy as seeing artists who deserve it being recognized. And the Italians surely do. They try to balance the noisy atmosphere of shoegaze with extremely melodic pop songs, perhaps slightly towards the latter. But it works, the results are as catchy as songs can be, especially in the first part of the album with What a Feeling and Nirvana really standing out.

The song that best represents the second half is Slap, a perfect example of a well-written chorus. The album is said to touch the notion of "emotional contrasts across its two distinct halves that reflect light and dark". Its visual representation is the cover art with a match about to die down, the moment right between the two opposites. You can kind of hear it in the music too, but I wouldn't say it's the first thing that catches attention of the listener. More than the ideological basis, one focuses on how perfectly catchy the songs are. Well done.

SONIC costs 10 EUR.

Check: Slap

Country: Italy

Genre: melodic shoegaze

piątek, 23 maja 2025

Hekla - Turnar (2025)

Hekla Magnúsdóttir shares her name with the tallest volcano on Iceland. There's no connection to her music, I just like these geographical-musical facts. The artist herself released her third album this year and frankly speaking, it's gotta be my favourite one of the two which is backed up by the fact that Hekla received a lot of attention recently.

Hekla is a theremin player. I wouldn't be able to hear that I think, the music on the album sounds like it could well be made out of samples and synthesizers, but there is something special about playing such an outstanding instrument. Does it always sound so... dark? Mysterious but mostly ominous? No wonder that her Bandcamp account advertises the album as a "paranormal plane of haunting dread". I can hear the elements of ethereality and cosmic psychedelia, but I feel mostly darkness pouring out of each of the compositions. But maybe it's just the state of my mind. Still, I feel the strength of this music lies in the fact that everyone will be affected in a slightly different way. The only common thing is how beautiful the album is.

Turnar costs 9 EUR (7 GBP).

Check: Í Ösku og Eldi

Country: Iceland

Genre: dark theremin ambient

Label: Phantom Limb

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terraplana - olhar pra trás (2023)

czwartek, 22 maja 2025

terraplana - natural (2025)

The Brazilians from terraplana made it to my blog already two years ago with their debut album and they are back so soon. Their sophomore release called natural proves that making the melodic, noisy and very honest music for them is, well, natural.

This is the kind of shoegazey, noisey music that feels like fun indie rock reworked to be airier and noisier with a big addition of the DIY honesty to the compositions. It is led by the duality of vocals with the more cheerful female ones provided by Stephani Heuczuk and the gloomier male ones. Interestingly enough, the new album features also a collaboration with Boston-based Winter and I have to say that hear a whisper has to be my favourite track here, the whispery additions fit so well to the otherwise upbeat song. I'm very happy to hear that the gazey scene in Brazil is alive and kicking and terraplana is my favourite proof for that.

Natural costs 10 USD.

Check: hear a whisper

Country: Brazil

Genre: noisy indie rock

Label: Balaclava Records

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Wombed - Still Nothing (2021)

środa, 21 maja 2025

Wombed - Developing Phobias (2025)

And so André Leo finally released the debut album under the moniker of Wombed. I remember his first EP being extremely slowcore and intimately quiet while the new album is more about showing emotions. In the end, this half of Medicine Boy ended up in similar musical regions as Lucy Kruger (and The Lost Boys) as they both explore the darker minimalist rock music and both do it very well.

Although Wombed is now a full line-up band, the album is ruled by the moments when Leo lets the emotions run freely be it in the form of his angrier voice (slightly angrier, let's be real) or surprisingly rough sounds of electric guitar. It's this kind of one man music that is very dependent on the vocals-guitar collaboration, although when you listen closely, some songs present more three-dimensional compositions. In any case, I still like the atmosphere very much: the slightly airy and very intimate music that, I'm sure, is especially good when played live for a smaller audience.

And yes, as it's been the case pretty much always, Lucy Kruger helped with providing backing vocals. It's good to see former band members helping each other with post-split-up careers.

Developing Phobias costs 6 EUR.

Check: Cloud Hum

Country: RSA/Germany

Genre: dark art rock

wtorek, 20 maja 2025

The Infinity Ring - Ataraxia (2025)

"New England’s best kept secret", The Infinity Ring released their sophomore album and I have to say that there is tons to unveil here. This collective atmospheric but also very artsy and very dark rock music is meant to enchant everyone who tastes it. One can only appreciate the range of feelings the album triggers: from the intimate melancholia up to the euphoria of the loud crescendos.

The first thing you notice when listening to the Americans' music is how deep Cameron Moretti's vocal is. It's almost Leonard Cohen-esque so you can imagine the structure of the voice you can practically feel on your skin. The second thing would be how beautifully complex their compositions are. Always starting from the point of calm darkness and sometimes maintaining this atmosphere til the very end, sometimes bursting into loud and noisy, orchestral-like giant made of notes, out of which each is equally important. I, being a post-rock fan, prefer slightly the latter with the absolute masterpiece entitled Elysium in the first place.

And since the loudness and the calmness here are both fueled by violin sounds, you can be sure that the atmosphere on the album is the most important thing. Being an enormous challenge to make, the album itself is a monument to "the exploration, the emotional toll and ultimately the ecstasy of creation" while the band is praised not only for not breaking under the pressure of the process but also for live performances. I hope to be able to experience the latter on my own one day.

Ataraxia costs 7 EUR (11 CAD).

Check: Elysium

Country: Massachusetts, US

Genre: dark&artsy post-rock

Label: Profound Lore

piątek, 16 maja 2025

BRUIT ≤ - The Age of Ephemerality (2025)

As I have stated a couple of times, I respect bands who decide not to use Spotify and this kind of streaming platforms while it still makes me sad. Because I can't freely access their music (even if I buy digital files from Bandcamp) and because the world of music industry is what it is. Nevertheless, there are bands like BRUIT ≤ whose music HAS TO BE listened to, even if it's not that easy. And the French band confirms that with their spectacular second album.

This is the most complicated post-rock music ever. In the sense that it is made with guitars, orchestral instruments as well as the electronic manipulations. I can't think on any other band who goes to so many places to make their music and make it sound so coherent at the same time. There are almost math rock parts on the new album and they sound like weird collages made of drones and social media, but they are mostly used as intros and backgrounds. The music is made with instruments and later heavily packaged into the modern, glitchy post-rock form which makes it double as attractive in my ears.

This correspondents with the band's world view that is really this kind of technocratic punk, rebelling against the oppressions of the modern world, politics, society. Everything that hurts us even if we don't recognize it. This album is for everyone who would want to start recognize them and follow the band in chanting "We hope to be among the damned who refuse to have faith in their masters and who do everything to escape the cameras in the streets".

The Age of Ephemerality costs 8 EUR.

Check: Progress / Regress

Country: France

Genre: modern punk post-rock

Label: Pelagic Records

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czwartek, 15 maja 2025

Kwoon - ODYSSEY (2025)

Oh, wow, a comeback that I did not expected nor have heard about! But what a beautiful surprise it is! I remember the project led by Sandy Lavallart's fantastic music from 10 years ago (the single called Swan) and 15 years ago (their last album release). This year they are back with a long and instantly memorable (and fittingly named) ODYSSEY.

This kind of post music that doesn't really match the common definition of post-rock, is not folky enough to call it post-folk, much rather sits somewhere there sounding beautiful. It is what Her Name Is Calla did and what Piano Magic were so good at, it is what slowcore and post-rock with a lot of artistic soul can sound like, it is one of the most intimately meaningful kinds of music out there. The artsy slowrock of the French band is stunning. Sometimes it is slow and quiet, sometimes it gets louder with the help of the vast range of classic instruments to create orchestral moments of euphoria (like in my favourite track Jayne) fueled with choire-like backing vocals (so beautiful in Life).

But the vocals are equally important, creating the folk-like focus on narration and words. The soft vocals sound emotional and very close to the audience, sometimes contrasting with the orchestral grandeur of the music. Every composition is complex and artistically engaging yet still very welcoming for any newcomer who happens to discover this band. And if they do, they are very lucky.

ODYSSEY costs 9 EUR.

Check: Jayne

Country: France

Genre: artsy slowrock

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