Psychic Scream - Psychic Scream (2023)

The "melt your face noise punk from the depths of hell", the depths of hell meaning North Carolina, band called Psychic Scream is a new thing that follows the trail of great American bands that combine nugaze with very aggressively heavy and noisy music. Connor Regan, who is responsible for this commotion, showed it on his self-titled debut EP.

I love how uncontrollably noisy the music is. While the melodies are very catchy, the vocals appropriately dreamy, the music beneath them (and above and around really) is a chaotic storm of noise: the guitars wreck your nerves, the audio effects make your brain scream and the drums march in extremely fast, mesmerizing pace. Regan didn't do the whole thing by himself, but I admire his music taste with the psychedelia and doom showing their influences everywhere on the album. The pure chaos of noise rock, however, is what I hear the most here and I love how overwhelming it gets and how well it works with psychedelic/nugaze vocals. Great debut.

Psychic Scream costs 4.20 USD.

Check: Fairweather Friends

Country: North Carolina, US

Genre: noise-gaze

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Day & Dream - The Art of Remembering (2022)

The debut album from the American duo Day & Dream, With Every Breath You Die, made one of the most interesting mellow dream pop acts of 2019. This year, the artists (with the help of quite a big circle of fellow musicians) show their second release and it's filled with light-weight, ethereal pop.

The dreamy indie pop from North Carolina is based on the airy vocals of Abby Amaya, that feel both intimate and sweet with a hint of nostalgic vibes (so well-audible in Separation Anxiety). They produce this attractive feeling of falling into a plush-filled chamber and the state of a perfect peace that is only reinforced by the inclusion of nature-inspired field recordings. And certainly, the band's picture where they are floating in a ball-filled pool couldn't be a better visual representation of this music.

The vocals are accompanied by non-invasive, very chill music that only in some places fight its way to the first rows and draws attention of the listener. This is the case in my favourite song, filled with somewhat different vibes, Cabin Fever. However, the general feeling the album leaves is this calm appreciation of peace and melody.

The Art of Remembering costs 10 USD.

Day & Dream - With Every Breath You Die (2019)

Check: Cabin Fever

Country: North Carolina, US

Genre: mellow dream pop

Label: Lilystars Records

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Spirit System - Whatevermind (2021)

The North Carolina-based Spirit System released their second album called Whatevermind, and it includes a very energetic and catchy take on the noisy, dreamy rock. The album was inspired by, as they state on their Facebook account, "pandemic daydreams, birdwatching, astral projection, melancholia, extraterrestrial summer crushes, cats napping, hauntings of the 90s, sunset driving, a snapshot of liminal spaces" and makes a great and airy summary of the last two years.

The band consists of "cozy, stoned, herbal tea drinking, cat loving, late sleepers", what not to love? Their music is less sleepy though, quite the opposite, except for the very dreamy vocals from Laurie Ruroden, there's a lot of lively guitars with very shoegazey moments, appropriate reverbs and instrumental haze, as well as pace-setting drums. The male vocals, on the other hand, add some coldwave/post-punk vibes to the picture, but even those don't obscure the main nature of this music: it's just absolutely immersive and downward atmospheric and the best proof for that is Lavender with it's mesmerizing and airy finish. This is a kind of music that is both atmospheric and pop-like catchy and I appreciate it. Especially when it comes to the loud and satisfying guitar fragments as it is the case in Effrayant for example.

Whatevermind costs 10 USD.

Check: Lavender 

Country: North Carolina, US

Genre: lively dreamgaze

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Moa - Collider (2021)

Moa is a new band out of North Carolina, who, as for now, is best known for their song being featured in Netflix documentary Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer. They have just released an impressive debut album though and it should be said that Collider sounds like a perfect blend of some of my favourite music genres.

First of all, their "deep, dark, moody music with plenty of space to lose one's self" clearly takes a lot from trip-hop. Those obscure, gloomy vibes that are often associated with the genre take Moa's sound where it resonates best. But there's more into the music than just darkness, it's warm and intimate, there's some spoken word that strengthens this feeling but often gives way to the vocalist's sweet and airy voice. It is always courted by the omnipresent but rather subtle electronics sounds the blinking of which does to the whole music what stars do to the night sky.

Slightly other vibes present Ratstar with its heavy-sounding drums, the utterly lullaby-like Gamelan and finally the total melt-down in the night-like atmosphere of Circus City with its trumpets sounds. Dreamy and warm, like a night in bed.

Collider costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: Ratstar

Country: North Carolina, US

Genre: dreamy trip-hop

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Day & Dream - With Every Breath You Die (2019) EN

Day & Dream is a shoegaze band led by the couple Peter Frizzante and Abby Amaya. He has [post-punk origins, while she is fascinated in pop music from before several decades Together they create airy and at the same energetic shoegaze.

They call themselves "forest explorers, stargazers, sleepwalkers, dreamers" and it's hard to miss this in their works. And they sing about "relationships, aging, hope, travel and risk-taking", and as they do so with extremely, phenomenally airy voice of Amaya, it's really easy to fall in love with the Carolina based musicians' music. Especially that they add psychedelic guitars and crazy drums to the equation (First in Flight!) so well contrasting with the sleepy vocal.

Those characteristics of Day & Dream are audible in each of the tracks as underneath the dreamy vocals (it's the Dream in the name) fast drums and aggressive guitars live (brilliant in Starry Night) or clear and forcing to dance bass line (You).

With Every Breath You Die costs 10 USD.

Check: Starry Night

Country: North Carolina, US

Genre: dreamy shoegaze

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