Kallsup - En sista räddning (2025)

Debuting shoegazey band from the VÅRØ label? I'm interested! And once again, the Swedish label delivers an extremely interesting group with music that marries energetic indie rock with outstanding  noisy and dreamy elements, making me think of bands like Pia Fraus for example.

In this music, the dreamy vocals are usually put on the pedestal, leading the indie pop songs with catchy melodies and light atmosphere. But it's not always the case. I especially love it when the Swedes' melodic pop drowns in noisy parts. This is especially well noticeable in the opening track that makes a beautiful composition with a fantastic finish. For me, the more drowning in the dense, sticky noise, the better. And I have to say, the band is really good in creating a good quality noise.

But the real goat here is Forever, the song that brings everything to the table: the moody melody, the airy atmosphere and the insanely catchy chorus. 

En sista räddning costs 7 EUR.

Check: Forever

Country: Sweden

Genre: noisy dream pop

Label: VÅRØ

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Corduroy - Corduroy (2021)

Corduroy already made me hyped with their single earlier this year and now they are ready with their debut album released by, of course, VÅRØ label. The band are from Norrköping, a Swedish city that's known for its industrial past and so can be compared to Manchester; no wonder this makes Corduroy music easily comparable to music from the English city.

It is an attractive indie pop with a great dose of noise in the backgrounds and pretty, airy and multi-layered vocals on top. The melodies are swift and catchy and the guitars that occupy most of the space here - are psychedelic in the best way they can be. Surprisingly often they are the main actors here, there are parts devoted mostly to them throughout the whole release while vocals take a rest on the side - there's a healthy deal of psychedelic guitar riffs all over the place and the musicians don't shy away from this rock heritage. I feel like towards the end of the album, the guitars more often create the more shoegazey walls of noise, especially touching in my favourite Gråa dagar.

Also the theme of the album revolves around Norrköping's history and its modern life in which it experiences the "progress towards a post-industrial society where factories have become fancy flats and juice bars". While overall it doesn't look positive in the musicians' eyes, the ultimate message is that you can always "rely on your friends, the music and the local bar" and this is something I like.

Corduroy costs 7 EUR.

Check: Gråa dagar

Country: Sweden

Genre: noisy indie pop

Label: VÅRØ

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Bolywool - Canada (2021)

I discovered the Swedish VÅRØ records recently but I'm already convinced this is a source of some quality noisy music from Scandinavia. The new thing that caught my attention is the comeback from the Calle Thoor and Oskar Karlström duo called Bolywool. Two years after their last release, they are showing a new EP called Canada.

This very short album is called "the perfect mix of stunning minimalism and magnificent experimentalism". In practice, it simply means noisy pop. But it's good and I really appreciate it: there's melodies that carry those mellow tracks and there's noisy ambiance that fills the backgrounds. There's also something exceptionally attractive about the vocals that are not only dreamy and suitably distorted but can also show this indie rock's bittersweet colours that make me think of The Autumns or maybe Hard-Fi from their best times. That's why Inertia is THE song for me on this album. But it is surrounded with moody, noise-friendly but also Scandinavia-like artful tracks (Jónsi vibes alert, especially in the closing For S No 1) that work with or without lyrics as well. 

Those warm and relaxing vibes I get throughout the quarter-long album are no coincidence as that was its point, as the label states it: "in times of uncertainty they groped for something safely and wanted to make songs about that kind of security you felt as a child". And it works.

Canada costs 4 EUR.

Check: Inertia

Country: Sweden

Genre: noise pop

Label: VÅRØ

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Wachcamp March-April'21 with Corduroy, de Lune, Sonia Gadhia, Gumshoe, Rajada

Corduroy - Gråa Dagar

"Sweden's most beautiful band" of four musicians from Norrköping make another worth-having-on-your-radar artist recording for the VÅRØ label. Their new single is all about noisy-shoegazy indie rock with clear and dreamy female vocals. The band's debut album is supposed to come out this spring. The single costs 1 EUR.

Country: Sweden

Genre: noise rock

Label: VÅRØ

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de Lune - lay_it_down

Rin de Lune, a multi-instrumentalist and musical experiments lover from New Zealand, shows a tiny and lovely indie pop song with sweet vocals and moody ambiance while exploring "voice manipulation using an analogue vocoder". The song costs 2 NZD (1 EUR).

Country: New Zealand

Genre: experimental indie pop

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Sonia Gadhia - Be Mine

And another short and cute song, this time even shorter and even cuter. Sonia Gadhia, a Californian artist tied with Spirit Goth Records, together with Josh Hwang aka Castlebeat, created this synthpop love ballad that soothes a lot of everyday's pains. The single costs 1 USD.

Country: California, US

Genre: dreamy synthpop

Label: Spirit Goth

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Gumshoe - Demos 01

The first of two short demo albums by the UK artist. A quick but interesting adventure in electronic post-rocky music with lively and light tunes on the background of subtle beats and tiny amounts of noise. The two tracks cost whatever you want to pay.

Country: UK

Genre: electronic post-rock

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Rajada - Màxim comú divisor

A very interesting debut, this Catalonia-based three-pieces band created some complex compositions with very dreamy, ghost-like vocals on top of that, the songs range from ethereal dream pop fragments to very guitar-oriented ones and this all fits together. The two songs cost whatever you want to pay.

Country: Spain/Catalonia 

Genre: noise rock

Label: El Mamut Traçut

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Boy with Apple - Walk in the Park (2020) EN

Goteborg-based Swedes known as Boy with Apple are a band playing the ethereal kind of bedroom pop. Their debut EP wad released by VÅRØ (a label with the most Swedish sounding name ever) and called it Walk in the Park.

And just like the title's walk, the music here makes a light and enjoyable experience. It's based on the home-made DYI atmosphere making the musicians so much closer to the audience. But unlike other bedroom pop projects, the musicians focused heavily on its ethereal side, no wonder that the reviews of this album often compare it to Cocteau Twins - same tweegaze airiness and dispersed, dreamy vocals. It works.

Especially in Stuck Dreaming a track with a fittingly dreampopy title and in the single track, the catchiest ethereal punk in Iceage. Boy with Apple make one of those bands the beginnings of which are worth following.

Walk in the Park costs 5 EUR.

Check: Iceage

Country: Sweden

Genre: DYI tweegaze

Label: VÅRØ

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Boy with Apple - Walk in the Park (2020) PL

Szwedzi z Goteborga znani jako Boy with Apple to zespół grający eteryczny bedroom pop. Swoją debiutancką EP-kę wydaną przez VÅRØ (label o najbardziej szwedzkiej nazwie możliwej) zatytułowali Walk in the Park.

I tak jak tytułowy spacer, muzyka na niej tworzy lekkie i przyjemne doświadczenie. Podstawą jej jest domowej roboty DYI atmosfera tak bardzo zbliżająca słuchaczy do zespołu. Ale w odróżnieniu od większości bedroom popowych projektów, muzycy bardzo mocno wzięli sobie do serca eteryczną jej stronę, nic więc dziwnego, że w wielu recenzjach porównywani są do Cocteau Twins - ta sama tweegaze'owa eteryczność i rozmyte, rozmarzone wokale. To działa.

Zwłaszcza w odpowiednio dream popowo zatytułowanym Stuck Dreaming czy singlowym, najbardziej przebojowym i zahaczającym o eteryczny punk Iceage. Boy with Apple to jeden z tych zespołów, których początki warto z uwagą obserwować.

Walk in the Park kosztuje 25 złotych (5 EUR).

Sprawdź: Iceage

Kraj: Szwecja

Szufladka: DYI tweegaze

Label: VÅRØ

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