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)

SS

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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The Heart of the Sun - Blue Album (2025)

Filiph Antonsson comes from Sweden and creates an involving psychedelic pop that includes some great traits of the genre: catchy melodies, mesmerizing atmosphere and interesting lyrics. After years of singles, he finally released a longer album and it's absolutely worth checking out.

Sure, the multi-layered, dense music is great, the atmosphere captures you and doesn't let you out before the album ends, the vocals are dreamy and pleasant. But what I like the most about Antonsson's debut are the story-driven and very lyrical texts. Especially in Probably Not that gives me strong Grandaddy vibes which is a great compliment in my books. I feel like the two artists have a similar approach to music: the lyrical layer is the most important, but it has to be not too abstract and must be accompanied by at least equally intriguing music. It works so well in this single track.

But the further the album goes, the more psychedelic it gets. The space-like So Many Secrets to Reveal certainly doesn't sound like it will reveal any of said secrets. The psychedelia element is what drove me to the album, but the lyrical sensibility is what made me stay.

Blue Album costs 4.5 EUR (50 SEK).

Check: Probably Not

Country: Sweden

Genre: dreamy psychedelic pop

Label: Declared Goods

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Julien Demoulin - A Trial of Distances (2025)

There is something special in airy soundscapes that are enriched with sounds of live instruments, especially when the instruments are not that obvious. This is exactly the case with the new album from the French artist Julien Demoulin, who created a dream with a twist.

As the label states, the release provides us with "emotional themes, deep chords of eerie synths and melancholic drones" with inclusion of "lovely brass sounds of trumpet, trombone and flugelhorn, provided by Kelly O'Donohue". The trumpets are really not something I envision in the reverb-filled, ethereal form, quite frankly I seldom envision them in any form. But those soundscapes work so well, I can't deny it. So, without any denying at all, let's sink into the beautifully dense ambient sounds.

Just to mention everything, the album includes also three remixes by some well-known names in the soundscaping world, including our very own How To Disappear Completely from Poland.

A Trial of Distances costs 7 EUR.

Check: A Trial Of Distances Pt.3

Country: France

Genre: brass instruments soundscapes

Label: sound in silence

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Lara - Disambiguate (2025)

"Noisy bois from the south of the metro (Manila)" maintain my image of the South-East Asia's underground music: the lo-fi but honest noisy shoegazers rocking the scenes. Their new (and possibly debut) album comes with all of the subgenre's features and has to sound especially great live.

There's little doubt on who inspired the debutants from the Philippines: the sound of early shoegaze releases from UK is audible in every second of the album. The lo-fi vibes make the resemblance even more striking. The melodies are hidden under the guitar noise, but there are moments where they can shine as well (great Countenance) and generally, I prefer the faster, noisier parts of the album as the ballads, although they diversify the track list, feel unremarkable in my ears.

I do appreciate, however, that the band is not afraid of leaving the vocals behind in some longer parts, relying on the instruments creating a noisy but equally cozy atmosphere (so great in Sonoluminescence!). All in all, a very promising debut with a lot of different approaches to noisy music that, still, together sound very well and coherent.

Disambiguate costs 7 USD.

Check: Countenance

Country: The Philippines

Genre: garage shoegaze

Label: Calm Lake Records

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Type Foundry - Type Foundry (2025)

Luke Buneo, a solo artist from Phoenix, Arizona released his first ever EP and I have to say: I've heard worse debuts. The airy vocals (and backing vocals!) with quite rough-sounding guitars in the backgrounds create a wonderful atmosphere from the borders of one's dreams.

Those rocky music is what I hear the most on the album. The guitar backgrounds sometimes sound like slightly tamed MBV's madness (Dawgs) and sometimes like "just" a grunge/rock/indie riffs that are catchy and filled with raw energy. This makes an interesting comparison with the very dreamy vocals and slower compositions that make me think of Ruby Haunt (Working the Jaguar). In general, this short album is very well thought through and well-rounded, especially for a solo musician's debut release. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the artist cause there's never enough of interesting solo shoegaze projects.

Type Foundry costs 7 USD.

Check: Dawgs

Country: Arizona, US

Genre: solo shoegaze

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Daydream Twins - Solstice for Embodiment (2025)

Ok, ok, hear me out: Daydream Twins' debut was one of the best shoegazey albums of 2022, their EP Bombinate was one of the best ones in 2023 and... now it's time for their sophomore LP called Solstice for Embodiment and, in my books, it's on the best way to become one of the best of the incoming year when it comes to airy but also very melodic shoegaze/dream pop vibes.

The unbelievable talent for writing catchy songs is what attracts me to the Texas duo in the first place. You can say that if it wasn't for the dreamy arrangements and off-stream vibes, the songs would be featured on your mainstream radio stations and national charts. But it's a great thing they are not: the pop hit-like melodies here are enchanted within the airy guitar and ethereal vocals-fueled compositions, meaning it's what we like the most. This ratio of the catchy and the dreamy seems to me perfectly balanced and perhaps it means that it can attract fans of very wide range of genres.

But if you ask me, the more airy, the better. That's why ballads like Aeromancy and Thousand Steps take the cake on the album. 

Solstice for Embodiment costs 7 USD.

Check: Aeromancy 

Country: Texas, US

Genre: ethereal pop

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Hollie Kenniff - For Forever (2024)

Hollie Kenniff, half of the Mint Julep duo, creates ambient music as a solo musician. The depth of this soft and airy electronica is unfathomed, encompassing both beauty and mystery in its abyss.

Piano keys like flower petals, synthy sounds like a delicate wind and then, there's the background of the compositions: deep, multi-layered, dark. This makes me think of a meadow early in the morning: the traces of the incoming day on the vast canvas of the night that is still close enough to be a little scary. Emotions. As the label describes the album, it "delivers miles of endless bliss" and that's very true. I love it.

For Forever costs 12 USD.

Check: Surface

Country: Canada/US

Genre: multi-layered ambient

Label: Nettwerk Music Group

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Tethered Hands - Tethered Hands (2025)

Pianist Joseph D. E. Phillips and guitarist Daniel Rickards teamed up and released one of the best post-rock albums of the first months of 2025. The cinematic instrumental music in which guitar doesn't play the central part is a great proposition for fans of the genre, who look for names outside of the post-rock mainstream.

Even the artists themselves call it "some of the best post-rock of their career", and, while I don't track their discographies, I can say there's a good chance that's true. The compositions, while sounding somewhat minimal at times (perfectly natural for a post-rock duo), strike with well-thought-through structures and great focus on the darker, more solemn atmosphere. The piano keys and violin strings are the perfect fit for this kind of music and, I admit, I'm a sucker for this combination. This track list could easily be a movie score, for some kind of noir and slightly pompous movie, but unlike most of movie scores, it has no moments of boring, schematic shallows.

I understand that it's not easy to achieve GY!BE-sque grandeur as two people, but the British-American duo is certainly close.

Tethered Hands costs 6 USD.

Check: Darkened Skies - Our City in Ruins

Country: Indiana, US/UK

Genre: cinematic post-rock

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blue heron holy ghost - shining through (2025)

As in shoegazey music I often look very closely at the quality of sound, DIY solo acts are particularly difficult for me to assess. I take into consideration how difficult it is to achieve the sound one can have in mind, so those artists have equal(ish) opportunities. And Michael from Tennessee, better known as blue heron holy ghost is a perfect example of an artist who should be given a chance.

I'm not saying the music he does is not good. But (I hope he'd agree), it could be better given better conditions. I like what he does with the backgrounds of his tracks: they are deliciously noisy in an abstract, cosmic way, they don't overwhelm, but are certainly visible. The soft, melancholic vocals are the bedroom shoegaze template and certainly feel right within the compositions. In his music, the slightly lo-fi vibes not only are not a problem, I'd say they add to the atmosphere of a noisy dream.

shining through costs 7 USD.

Check: In My Head

Country: Tennessee, US

Genre: bedroom shoegaze

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Van Gogh Season - all's right with the world. (2024)

Sometimes there are bands I don't think a lot about, but each time they release something new, I discover them anew with a "I really like those guys!" thought. The Italians from Van Gogh Season (for whom this is, I believe technically speaking a debut album) with their lively, multi-layered guitar post-rock is certainly one of those bands.

It is pretty cool when a post-rock band sounds like the guys there have fun making it. The Italians' music is so diverse, while always being within the rigid forms of the genre, that it certainly feels that way. There seems to be a space to breath for every instrument and every approach to music. The melodic, almost pop rock parts border the more atmospheric ones, the piano lines carry the compositions from the very beginning and the slower pieces are as interesting as the faster ones.

Another thing is that the band's post-rock sounds very much carefree and optimistic, the atmosphere that perfectly fits the album's title. It's beautiful like a sunny day and happiness which is not that common. I won't say it's my favourite approach to the genre, but I appreciate something fresh and new. 

all's right with the world. costs 7 EUR.

Check: from then, to now

Country: Italy

Genre: multi-layered post-rock

Van Gogh Season - Versus (2021)

Van Gogh Season - Van Gogh Season, Pt. 2 (2019)

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Soaring - Soaring (2025)

The airiest blackgaze of the year may well be already released as Baptiste Belot's debut EP is both strikingly dreamy and wonderfully fast and heavy. The French artist makes his music as Soaring and the feeling of going through the skies with the engine built of euphoria is kind of what his self-titled album is all about.

This truly is "heavy reverb music for the heavy-hearted". Because while the music is filled with fast, synthy sounds that will always make me feel euphoric and hopeful, while the flow of the tracks has a power to take you in its hands and make you, almost literally, soar through the skies, the lyrics are bleak and gloomy. It's about the indifferent universe, being afraid of emotions, dying. This stark dissonance is where the album glows. Glowy, drowning with light dreams about the absurd of human existence, the ones we like the most.

Soaring costs 7 EUR.

Check: A Blurred Contour of Everything 

Country: France

Genre: euphoric blackgaze

Label: Stellar Frequencies

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Besna - Krásno (2025)

After three years since their debut, the Slovakian outfit Besna shows us their sophomore album called Krásno. The Black metal here is only marginally seasoned with the "post-" suffix and while usually it makes me throw a bit, in this case the band's music works really well. I think it's also darker than before, but maybe it's because the world grew darker as well.

The title of the album translates to "Beautiful", which is slightly surprising. There must a good deal of irony in that as the worldwide situation is far from being beautiful (the band supports the Ukrainian war effort for example, and this crisis is nowhere close to an end, but the point is that the artists are aware and focused on what's going on, politically speaking). The lyrics supports this thought as, among traditionally metal-kind of poetry, there's this sentence (taken from the title track): "Indifference feeds hopelessness, indifference only feeds hopelessness". Indeed.

Musically speaking, the message is conveyed in the blackest of the ways: angry screams, guitar noise and fast melodies. My favourite track is the most deceiving one as Oceán prachu sounds like a peaceful instrumental interludium for the most part, but suddenly develops into pure musical anger. Again, indeed.

Krásno costs 7 EUR.

Check: Oceán prachu

Country: Slovakia

Genre: (post-) black metal

Besna - Zverstvá (2022)

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memoryloop - being and nothingness (2024)

They started as "pedestrian", now they create their music as memoryloop; they look like your average nugaze band of the latest generation, but they make music that is a tasteful combination of slow shoegaze and post-rock; they are from California, but they music says "somewhere cold". This is the second debut of the band and it feels amazing.

They make music to "give [the artists'] silly little lives a little bit of meaning" and, in my books, it's just the best reason to do that. From the look and feel of their image, I wasn't expecting a long, classically post-rock track to open the album. It's this sort of surprises that catches your attention, definitely. And it really sets up the tone of the whole thing: it is particularly solemn and melancholic. Slow. Deep. It sounds like a narcoleptic ambient pop that is mashed up with guitar post-rock tracks from time to time. Makes me think of Midwife if she played with, say, Ranges. Amazing combo.

I love when an album takes different, sometimes very different elements and yet succeeds in making them sound like a whole. Especially when they are a real party for borderline melancholics. This is my vibe.

being and nothingness costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: earth exit

Country: California, US

Genre: dreamy slowcore/post-rock

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Flower and Pines - Unconditional Love (2025)

I remember when their magical EP Hnieŭ brought a sense of difficult to locate musical unorthodoxity. I can't say what genre the music belonged to, but it's usually a really positive thing for me. This year, the Belarusian duo from the Polish city of Wrocław are back in the game with their longest release to date and the magic is back.

I feel like the record is slightly less experimental than the previous one, but maybe it's due to the fact that they now create their music in English. And in English they somehow sound like the most famous Polish contemporary band, Trupa Trupa. This is an art rock world class level that should be out there, being appreciated by another Iggy Pop or whomnot. Especially that it is slower, less rocky and most artsy, in some moments closer to post-rock with vocals, sometimes it's tribal like folk liturgy combined with a demonstration anthem. How is it all of the things while still sounding like a coherent whole?

It's also a "reflection on [the band's] worries, anger, and grief" dressed in different forms, such as "a memorial service, a battle cry, or a manifesto of humility. It could be anything, depending on your perspective." This reinforces the impression of a strong diversification of the content and I like the idea that it was intentional to appeal o whoever is listening. After all, we have so much to worry about these days that it may be impossible to talk about it one musical language.

Unconditional Love costs 5 EUR (21 PLN).

Check: Dogs

Country: Belarus/Poland

Genre: art (post-)rock

Label: Requiem Records

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MIZU - 4 | 2 | 3 (2024)

Issei Herr, better know as MIZU, whom Pitchfork described as "frequently gorgeous, at times unsettling, and constantly in flux", showed her third solo album earlier in the autumn. It is decorated with a beautiful and dark cover art that matches exactly the vibes of the cellist's music. 

The artist is known for creating "expansive soundscapes through her singular cello playing", but it is the first album where she turned from the ethereal, mysterious electronica to darker, more industrial corners of the music world. The picturesque description of the album on the artist's Bandcamp includes words such as "oppressive", "sinister" and "horror" which is all true, but there is still tons of other feelings in MIZU's tasteful soundscapes. There's love in the oppressive, there is kind in the sinister and dream in horror. I feel like this music has so many layers that you can't help but slowly dig deeper and deeper to find yourself buried by the heavy, multidimensional cello notes.

4 | 2 | 3 costs 11 USD.

Check: Fallout

Country: New York, US

Genre: dark cello soundscapes

Label: Carousel Productions

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Mondaze - Linger (2024)

Slow melodies and heavy guitars that accompany the ethereal vocals. This is the recipe for a successful album from the Italian outfit Mondaze. The band released their sophomore album last November and equipped it with everything that modern shoegazer looks for.

The band calls their music as "heavy shoegaze" and there is no two ways about it. The slow flow of heavy guitar sounds and the sad, downbeat vocals feel extremely melancholic. In fact, the layer of melancholia covers everything here like an opaque veil, making the whole album so intriguing. Especially that the songs are not particularly melodic or catchy, it is more about creating the atmosphere and the heavy guitar chaos underneath the soothing sounds of vocals. 

And this heaviness is not without a message. As the label cites, "A message on the wall reads, >“We don’t want to return to normal because normal was the problem.<”, the artists aim at critique of today's world routine: consumerism, alienation, harmful habits. I can only repeat after them the call for a change.

Linger costs 8 EUR.

Check: Linger 

Country: Italy

Genre: heavy shoegaze

Label: Bronson Recordings

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FOG - fogesque II & III

I feel like recently, shoegaze from South Korea is defined by solo acts who are more into the bedroom pop-side of the noisy genre than the fully fleshed-out bands. FOG is the latter so I had to check them out (I remember their first album, but it was soo long ago! (I mean five years)). And the level of pure noisy guitars is just fantastic.

The band released two full-length albums pretty much at the same time, so I will post about both. fogesque II  and fogesque III have pretty much the same vibes and can be treated as one, long and loud whole. The first thing you notice is that it's not your hi-fi, high-brow, "let's make the tiniest notes audible" kind of music. It is extremely noisy with this lo-fi guitar noise that can easily overwhelm you if you listen loud enough. The notion of the garage music can probably be applied here.

But the noise is definitely the only appealing aspect of the releases. The band is very fluent at creating particularly airy segments (like the end of Facade, probably my favourite track here), but it probably shouldn't be surprising given the band's name. Overall, I'd say that the first album of the two is better, the songs are more compelling and involving. Still, both are worth trying, that's for sure.

fogesque II costs 7 USD, fogesque III costs 7 USD.

Check: Facade

Country: South Korea

Genre: garage shoegaze

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Leech - Sapperlot (2024)

It's only February and it's the second post-rock album from Switzerland I'm posting here. I know, they're both from last year, but it doesn't matter. What matters is that it says a lot about the condition of the genre in the Alps and I can't stop saying that Switzerland is now chocolate, banks and great instrumental guitar music.

I have to admit that the album bought me with first notes. Literally, the first notes of Knock Knock feel so good, I can't explain it. Even if these slightly unnerving sounds don't represent the vibes of the whole album, they what drew me to the release so much. I'm saying that it's not a good representation because the album is... nice. The sound is very approachable, with extremely good flow and melodies fueled by synthy keys that are the background of every composition. It's not loud, it's not unnerving at all, it's like this perfect boy you'd want your daughter to mary. Even if you don't have a daughter at all.

And I can see how some may feel like it's not that good. But I can assure you, it is: the time goes so fast with the band's music. I find the synths always pretty transcendental, their vibes make it easier for me to flow in the sound without thinking about my physical self. And as the guitar side of Leech's music doesn't overwhelms the delicate synths, it's very easy to do just that with Sapperlot.

Sapperlot costs 20 CHF (22 EUR).

Check: Knock Knock

Country: Switzerland

Genre: synthy post-rock

Label: Instarmental Records

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Carlos Ferreira - Dust Inside the Light (2024)

There's a few ambient artist who I find consistently inspiring and the Brazilian Carlos Ferreira is one of them as his new album (19th I think in the last five years) is at least just as good as the ones I know. The dreamy, lively but melancholic vibes are what draw me to his music.

This liveliness of the little sounds dancing around you, but never stay long enough to be encapsulated and studied, tons of things going around you so fast that feel weightless, this is the kind of experience I seek in Ferreira's music and I'm never disappointed. The December album  brings it all once again so I can enjoy the ethereal ambient vibes as long as I want. Especially that the release features his compatriot Rita Zart and two additional remixes, making it a beautiful journey into the dreamy soundscapes.

Dust Inside the Light costs 5.20 EUR.

Check: Dissolving the Self

Country: Brazil

Genre: lively ambient

Label: Archives 

Carlos Ferreira & Ki Oni - A Hundred Ways of Escaping (2022)

Carlos Ferreira & Almanacs - La Deriva (2021)

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shedfromthebody - Whisper and Wane (2025)

It's becoming a layman tradition that if it's a winter of an odd year, there's a new album from Suvi Savikko, better known as Shedfromthebody. And it surprise anyone as the Finnish artist's music is as dark as the long, freezing nights in Scandinavia and equally mysterious.

The artist's signature style stays the same: the more dreamy than nightmarish vocals play the main role not only to boost up the atmosphere, but also convey intriguing melodies (very Scandinavian dark pop-like) and disturbing lyrics. And the music stays decisively in the background, even if it is made with metal-like instruments, it is designed to accompany the vocals, but nothing more. While usually it's something that bothers me (I'm looking at you, Dry Cleaning), here it makes a perfect sense. It's like dark ambient backgrounds but played with real (I think) instruments. And also being a bit metal. Still, it works.

It should also be mentioned that Savikko is also a talented visual artist and she painted the cover art (and company pieces available to see at her Instagram) herself. They are also really good. And unsettling. But as Shedfromthebody describes herself: she's a "provider of immaculate vibes". Checks out.

Whisper and Wane costs 7 EUR.

Check: Mooring

Country: Finland

Genre: dark doomgaze

shedfromthebody - To Hold the Ripened Sun (2021)

shedfromthebody - A Dead and Aimless Hum (2020) 

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black particles - a path in entropy (2024)

In post-rock music, I look for one of three things: either the overpowering melancholia, or the overwhelming guitar heaviness or the energetic blizzard of melodies and fast pace. The Hungarian outfit of black particles redefined the last one with a fantastic album a path in entropy released last November. It's a blast that should never stop.

There is not a second wasted, the band instantly goes to the fast-paced, pure energy kind of music. It is very melodic, but there is no space for idle guitar intros and gentle weeping, it's the juicy tempo from the very beginning. I wanted to pause to grab a coffee, but I was taken by the album's flow and simply couldn't. Luckily, the sound itself is filled with caffeine that makes your body awaken and energized. Especially when you get to the torrent of guitars entitled the stranger in the mirror. This all makes it clear that the musicians have background in post-hardcore, screamo music as the energy is very similar but translated into well-structured, guitar-based compositions. I love it.

a path in entropy costs 6.66 EUR.

Check: the stranger in the mirror

Country: Hungary

Genre: energetic post-rock

black particles - loss function (2022)

Black Particles - Wave Function Collapse (2020)

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EERIÆRMOR - EERIÆRMOR (2024)

Kevin Gan Yuen known from the black noise Sutekh Hexen and as Fermentae released his first album under the moniker of EERIÆRMOR. The self-titled LP makes a great combination of two sides of electronica: the lively ambient and industrial noise. And those contrasting vibes go together surprisingly well.

The album is designed to convey "a powerful emotional imprint, guiding the listener from states of liminal ecstasis to expressing unification of beauty and brutality". The way the artist achieves it is combining beautiful ambient () passages with moments of harsh noise, creating this kind of contrast that is very satisfying to listen to. Although, to be fair, the harshness of the noise is softer than I'd expect so the barrier to entry is not that significant. 

EERIÆRMOR costs 7 USD.

Check: I, Rainmaker

Country: California, US

Genre: noisy electronica

Label: Cyclic Law

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