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)

:bandcamp:

:facebook:

:instagram:

:spotify:

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

:bandcamp:

:facebook:
:official:

:instagram:

:youtube:

:spotify:

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

:bandcamp:

:facebook:

:instagram:

:soundcloud:

:spotify:

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

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

TESA - G H O S T ( 2015)

:bandcamp:

:facebook:

:instagram:

:spotify:

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

:bandcamp:

:facebook:

:instagram:

:youtube:

:spotify:

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

:bandcamp:

:facebook:
:official:

:instagram:

:soundcloud:

:spotify:

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

:bandcamp:

:facebook:
:official:

:instagram:

:soundcloud:

:youtube:

:spotify:

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

:bandcamp:

:facebook:
:official:

:instagram:

:spotify:

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

Glazyhaze - Just Fade Away (2023)

:bandcamp:

:facebook:

:instagram:

:youtube:

:spotify: