Haiku Garden - Loose Contacts / Tense Present (2022)

The Slovenian dream rockers are back with their second album. Four years after the debut Where If Not Now, Haiku Garden released Loose Contacts / Tense Present to make their name sound even louder in the psychedelic music world.

Their label advertise the album as "clear, direct sound that punches you in the face and yet manages to stay articulate and refined" with hints at that the Slovenians got more musically matured and refined. But this doesn't affect their energy, so audible in the guitar-heavy compositions. Perhaps the way they balance the energetic and the soothing songs is a prove for this more mature approach to song-writing with Structures subtle psychedelic magic that borders with the high-paced Levitate. But, what's more important to me, the band can also create a real guitar-fueled storm of noise as it is the case in Loose Contacts or more synthy in Tense Present, if only they decided to do so more often.

Lyrics-wise, the album is said to be exploring the "themes of ever-changing relationships and division" while staying hopeful in that matter. And the music reflects that very well: serious and noisy guitars playing catchy tunes is my favourite kind of rock.

Loose Contacts / Tense Present costs 7 EUR.

Haiku Garden - Where If Not Now (2018)

Check: Loose Contacts

Country: Slovenia

Genre: psychedelic indie rock

Label: Kapa Records

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Shadow Universe - Subtle Realms, Subtle Worlds (2022)

This year is marked by the comebacks of the piano-based modern post-rock bands and now, after Nordic Giants, it's time for the Slovenian Shadow Universe to show their third album. For me, their debuting The Unspeakable World was one of those surprising hits I hadn't seen coming and til this day it remains one of my favourite albums of the genre. Subtle Realms, Subtle Worlds feels slightly different but it's not a bad kind of different.

A very big accent is put on the piano bits. The whole tracks are driven by the piano keys without sounding too depressing; instead, the piano makes them vivid and energetic in a different way most post-rock compositions are. Somehow even the inclusion of strings in Don't Look at It and You'll See It doesn't mean it's automatically a melancholia-infused song; it's slower and perhaps more beautiful but the pace is still there and it's quite surprising. Obviously, the moments of the neoclassical beauty are more often then not interrupted by the modern-sounding post-rock music that introduces a huge-scaled grandeur feeling, not so different from what Nordic Giants did this year. 

This multitude of various sounds complimented by subtle electronica and trumpets (or trumpet-like samples) in Losing Home and the glitches in Antares Goes Supernova is what makes the album a must-go-to for the fans of less traditional, more modern and eclectic post-rock music.

Subtle Realms, Subtle Worlds costs 8.5 EUR (7 GBP).

Shadow Universe - The Unspeakable World (2017)

Check: Don't Look at It and You'll See It 

Country: Slovenia

Genre: modern post-rock

Label: Monotreme Records

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Haiku Garden - Where If Not Now (2018) EN

I got to know Haiku Garden's music while they had a gig in Kraków, now the Slovenians are releasing their first LP filled with psychedelic shoegaze of great quality. Where If Not Now makes an attention worthy example of eurogaze or in general, of combining pop with heavier hits.

The psychedelic part of their project is not only present in the brilliant and abstract cover art and visualizations during concerts. It is also present in the music, especially in impressive guitar riffs and non-orthodox ways the musicians chose to develop their compositions in. It matches the slightly hidden, shoegaze-style, vocal and guitar walls of sound it's accompanied with.

One can't appreciate enough also how varied their music is. Besides the more guitar and catchy tracks (Days, Dripping Away) one can also find some, probably even better sounding, psychedelic ballads (Barriers), and the two natures are combined together in the great Drifter, a fading away in haze ballad crowned with a danceable finish. No wonder that the band enjoyed having the song of the day title in the legendary KEXP radio and a long Euro concert tour.

Where If Not Now costs 5 EUR.

Check: Barrier

Country: Slovenia

Genre: psychedelic shoegaze

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Shadow Universe - The Unspeakable World (2017) EN

Guitar post-rock from the Slovenian Shadow Universe seduces with epicness and well thought through compositions. Besides raw guitar sounds, the musicians show also a whole spectre of ways to create diverse and catchy instrumental music.

The band describe their music as one fitting perfectly for soundtracks. The amount of epicness suggests that it'd be a perfect choice for a good space opera, which is actually reflected in the tracks' titles. Especially spectacular is the second part of "Pulsaru", where indeed pulsating keys meet extremely raw effects and loud guitars. Similarly, "Free Dimension" and "Resident of Forgotten Galaxy" are something to pay attention to.

Tha album ends with two tracks connected by unsettling, folkish/space sounds that create one big farewell to life and hope. Perfect ending for a very good album.

"The Unspeakable World" costs 2 EUR.

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