Sky Is Alright - Sky Is Alright (2021)

The London/LA-based Sky Is Alright released their first album Sky Is Alright  and it may be one of the most interesting ethereal music releases this year. The duo consists of the artists known from post-rock/mathrock bands The Littlest Viking and Signal Hill, but now they create this extremely soft-vocals very guitar-based dreamy music that takes you straight to Morpheus' Realms.

What strikes the most from the beginning is how airy the vocals are - they're not your dreamy indie pop vocals, they are an ethereal cushion, an incarnate dream, the most delicate male voice since, perhaps, Hanging Valleys. Those whispers are accompanied by very rock-like guitars (no place for soothing synths, everything is filled with the pop-rock vigour) in catchy compositions. Especially Sky Is Alright and Indigo Moon deserve special attention  while  Mistress Pessimist may be the liveliest dream rock song I heard for a while now. The whole album finishes with extremely mellow songs that make it feel as if the whole release simply dissolves into the air.

Sky Is Alright costs 8 USD.

Check: Indigo Moon

Country: UK

Genre: ethereal indie rock

Label: Somewherecold

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Tombstones in Their Eyes - Looking for a Light (2021)

I appreciate the band led by John Treanor for some time now, and I'm genuinely surprised I didn't post about Maybe Someday, a great album from 2019. Thankfully, the time to fix my errors is here as their new album Looking for a Light is a well-done continuation of the psychedelically noisy career they  have taken.

This music is a slow-paced psychedelic rock meeting stoner, very California-vibing heavy and crunchy guitars. This combined results in mesmerizing compositions filled with non-overwhelming but always well-felt noise. Another thing is that Treanor can writer catchy melodies that certainly stand out throughout the album. That said, the clue of the release is the slow, somewhat gloomy and somewhat relaxing mood, so well heard (and felt) in the title track Looking for a Light with its nostalgic theme and ballad-like construction. This makes me think that the project changed its style, slowing down the pace and smoothing the roughness while maintaining the overall psychedelic overflow, its trade mark and pride.

Looking for a Light costs 8 USD.

Check: Looking for a Light

Country: California, US

Genre: desert psychedelic rock

Label: Kitten Robot Records/Somewhercold Records

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Tender Tones - Youth Retirement Club (2020) EN

Manon Deruytere and Maxime Pargaud make up the Tender Tones duo. The Paris-based artists, a new item in Shore Dive Records' portfolio, are into exceptionally atmospheric combination of dream pop and a lot of synth sounds. How good it turned out to be can be checked on their new EP called Youth Retirement Club.

The Frenchmen's band doesn't sound like energetic synthpop, quite the contrary, talking about synths and flat, synthetic beats it's closer to minimalist vibes of coldwave. Then there are also some mysterious, darkwavish whispers in Red Lovers. On the other hand, both the engaging melodies and distorted, airy vocals are surely something that came from dream pop. This cold etheric atmosphere sounds great, especially when the two opposites - the darkness of wave and the dreaminess of dream pop closely work together as it is in the great Still White Noise. 

No wonder then that the album is co-released by the shoegazey Shore Dive Records and wave Somewherecold. An ideal marriage..

Youth Retirement Club costs 3 EUR.

Check: Still White Noise

Country: France

Genre: ethereal wave

Label: Shore Dive Records / Somewherecold

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Tender Tones - Youth Retirement Club (2020) PL

Manon Deruytere i Maxime Pargaud tworzą Tender Tones. Duet z Paryża, nowa pozycja w portfolio Shore Dive Records, specjalizuje się w niezwykle atmosferycznym połączeniu dream popu i dużej ilości syntezatorowych dźwięków. Jak dobrze to połączenie wypada przekonać można się na nowej EP-ce artystów zatytułowanej Youth Retirement Club.

Muzyka Francuzów nie brzmi jak energiczny synthpop, a w sferze syntezatorów i płaskich, syntetycznych bitów bardziej przypomina minimalistyczne klimaty coldwave'u. Do tego dochodzą też tajemnicze szepty w Red Lovers. Z drugiej strony zarówno wciągające melodie i rozproszone, eteryczne wokale to już zdecydowanie zasługa dream popu. Taka zimna eteryka robi bardzo dobre wrażenie, najfajniej, gdy obie skrajności - mrok wave'u i rozmarzenie dream popu ze sobą ściśle współgrają, a tak jest w świetnym Still White Noise. 

Nic dziwnego zresztą, że krążek wydawany jest przez shoegaze'owe Shore Dive Records ale też wave'owe Somewherecold. Mariaż niemal idealny.

Youth Retirement Club kosztuje 11 złotych (3 EUR).

Sprawdź: Still White Noise

Kraj: Francja

Szufladka: ethereal wave

Label: Shore Dive Records / Somewherecold

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