Nuclear Daisies - First Taste of Heaven (2025)

Coming from Texas are Nuclear Daisies, a band who likes their shoegaze served trippy. With Ringo Deathstarr's Alex Gehring in the lineup, the outfit released their sophomore album back in the summer, but it's so good that it deserves mentioning in the middle of winter's frozen landscape.

What makes this project quite special is the psychedelic vibes of the shoegaze/dream pop offered. Or even a step further: the trip-hop-esque bits and pieces that add up to the music's ethereal but very much otherworldly atmosphere. The further the album goes, the more audible the trip-hop influences with Doves and Fangs sounding as t-h as possible while still clearly within the realm of dreamy guitar music and finally, 333 is basically Teardrop.

This also makes the album's flow so attractive! The melodies are captivating, the pace faster than slower, the ethereality clearly noticeable in the soft vocals and hazy backgrounds. When it comes to the song I'd recommend, it has to be Infinite Joy as I love the shoegazey compositions that use the silence to fuel their overall catchiness and this is definitely the case here.

First Taste of Heaven costs 9 USD.

Check: Infinite Joy

Country: Texas, US

Genre: psychedelic shoegazey indie

Label: Portrayal of Guilt

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ARIMA - Ez dago amor (2025)

Is the band led by Paule Bilbao my favourite outfit that makes music in Basque language? Yes, obviously, it's the only one I know. But the fact about ARIMA is that it's one of the European hidden gems the music of which is definitely worth discovering. Regardless of the language it is sung in.

The signature sound of the Basque is the combination of indie rock (with more focus on the "rock part" with noisy and hazy vibes. Bilbao's clear and strong vocal carries the compositions but at the same time (at least in my ears and mind) stops me from putting their music on the shelf labeled "shoegaze". Which is fair play, as the vocals a) are fantastic and b) leave a lot of space for the instruments to create this slow(ish) and heavy atmosphere. As I know since their appearance at the AM Festival, this sounds particularly impressive live.

The noisier and more ambient passages don't slow down the melodies here. It's the melody that makes  Isurkari one of my favourite tracks of the end of 2025, but truth be told, this short EP is stacked with hits like guitar-rich Zarata for example, with the spoken-word-based intro and outro tracks adding to the album's atmosphere. I wonder if the band plans to release their first LP anytime soon, I, for one, would appreciate it very much.

Ez dago amor costs 8 EUR.

Check: Isurkari

Country: Basque Country/Spain

Genre: ethereal indie rock

Label: Bonberenea / Aloud Music Ltd.

Arima - Beldurrez beste egitean (2023)

ARIMA - Metamorphosis (2019)

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