Smote - Songs from the Free House (2025)

I'm so surprised that I have just found Daniel Foggin aka Smote's new album in Tethered Hand's summary of the best post-rock albums of 2025! I'm surprised because by pure coincidence I will be covering Tethered Hand's release... tomorrow! It's also interesting because it shows how diverse post-rock music can be as Smote's music is just on the border of the genre, yet impresses with similar elements as more traditional post-rock projects.

Foggin blends so many things in his musical cauldron, man! The album starts like a perfect drone release, but then it shifts from desert rock into post-rock passages into space rock psychedelia. And then there is this thing with the flute music whatever you can call it. Listening to this album is genuinely like a road trip with new things to appreciate in every minute of the passing soundscape. And in reality the trip takes place on a desert in outer space and you are in a heavy tank, rocking on the uneven surface of the planet.

The album feels extremely heavy with the heaviness of doom and sludge, even if, quite frequently, it becomes calm and almost soothing. How is it possible? The quiet fragments are designed to emphasize everything else, like the ethereal choral chants in Chamber or the slow guitar riffs everywhere else. It's difficult to imagine an album so diverse and at the same time so coherent: the form changes but the mood stays the same til the end. Ah, yes, and Lankum's Ian Lynch is here too!

Songs from the Free House costs 8 EUR (6.99 GBP).

Check: Wynne

Country: UK

Genre: heavy space rock

Label: Rocket Recordings

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Radar Men From the Moon x Twin Sister - Mirrors for Discharge (2025)

Radar Men From the Moon have already around 10 releases, but none of them was very much to my taste. It's different with the live album and one can say it's VERY different as I rarely appreciate live albums at all. And this one, recording of their live set together with Twin Sister made in 2/3 of Dead Neanderthals, I find definitely appreciating worthy. 

The album was recorded during the gig at 2022's Roadburn Festival and, what's important here, the compositions had been all written for this specific set. Both formations are known for their heavy, psychedelic space rock and this is what dominates in the speakers when listening to the album. Heavy, psychedelic space rock squared. The slow, but poignant composition venture towards the noisy and sonically overwhelming realms thanks to a real army of guitars.

But the heaviness is not the only thing. Somewhere in the compositions, hidden between the mesmerizing repetitiveness and meaty riffs and desperate, touching vocals, I hear the dreamy escape offered to the audience. Perhaps it's the space element of their music that invites me so insistingly to the experience. Or maybe it's Twin Sister as it is only their second album ever (under this moniker of course) and they are 2/2 present on this blog.

Mirrors for Discharge costs 7 EUR.

Check: Drowning in Self-Image

Country: The Netherlands

Genre: heavy psychedelic rock

Label: God Unknown Records

Twin Sister - Twin Sister (2020)

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La ciencia simple - Ritmos en cruz (2022)

The Chilean band that aims at the "exploration in the crossing of rhythmic patterns immersed in atmospheres and narratives of a dramatic nature" are back on my blog. Four years after their previous release they showed an LP that confirms the quality of their psychedelic/post-rock music.

It is slower and more atmospheric than your average psychedelic rock and softer and more complex than your average post-rock. The South American outfit's music is based on a broad range of sounds from ambient-like backgrounds, through piano keys (so beautiful in Sueño azul) to Niebla's unsettling guitars in the track's finish. This is this kind of instrumental music that requires full focus and it is guaranteed to give the listener something interesting, there's simply too much going on in this music, there's too many inspirations the musicians draw from, to leave anyone indifferent to this album.

Ritmos en cruz costs 8 USD.

La ciencia simple - III IV VII (2018)

Check: Niebla

Country: Chile

Genre: psychedelic post-rock

Label: anomalía ediciones

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Waterville - Isle of Blue (2022)

The Polish band of Waterville is not the main thing that comes to mind when you think of noisy artists in Poland. But it's a mistake as the Białystok-based outfit's second ever EP shows, once again, top quality dream pop music.

Isle of Blue, brought to you by Shore Dive Records, has already been recognized by some important worldwide players, including DKFM. And it's not a surprise as it's filled with dreamy and noisy songs or, like they advertise themselves, "new apocalyptic dreampop/shoegaze" content.  Their music is more about the moody, atmospheric than it is about the catchy and the melodic. It's not particularly fast-paced but it's very well at keeping the suspense up (so well audible in the album's longest track, War and the closure in Under the Water). In fact, the band is really good at creating the vast, spacious atmosphere, which is especially well-tangible during their live gigs.

Isle of Blue costs 3 USD.

Check: Breathing

Country: Poland

Genre: spacious dream pop

Label: Shore Dive Records

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Tajak - La sombra del agua (2022)

Tajak are from the capital city of Mexico and they have been doing their extremely entertaining psychedelic rock since 2015. Their new album, La sombra del agua (or "The shadow of the water") is already their fifth, although it is my first meeting with their music. Hopefully not the last.

The artists admit that the way they recorded this album was different from the previous, more improvisation-oriented ones. This one was created through a "much more patient, meticulous and intimate process" and I have to say that I dig this creativity-filled, complex playlist. The other thing is the range of various instruments used during recording, including ocarina, sitar, flute and more with a heavy dose of field recordings from the lush, Mexican landscapes. 

One thing that is very special about this album is the huge amount of instrumental ambient passages that create a unique, exotic but also extremely moody atmosphere which can soon enough transform into noisy sections (like in Soñar es despertar). The whole thing feels closer to the subtle, mysterious soundscapes than any kind of rock and the delicate, barely audible vocals add to this feeling too. But the whole album is structured like a post-rock song: it gets louder and louder throughout the whole hour. Still, even if, in my favourite parts, guitars take over, the overall feeling is still slowly mesmerizing and this is something I appreciate a lot at this release. 

La sombra del agua costs 7 EUR (140 MXN).

Check: La puerta

Country: Mexico 

Genre: psychedelic rock soundscape

Label: Látigo

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Sun's Signature - Sun's Signature (2022)

This project managed to take the alternative music world by surprise: Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins and Echo & The Bunnymen and Spiritualized's drummer Damon Reece are a real life couple, but they decided to create something together in the music world as well. This EP is the result and it's as artsy and moody as could be imagined.

Fraser's theatrical voice and the music that balances between space rock, art pop and more experimental territories, together, bring this overwhelming feeling of higher art. And it doesn't matter if it's more about moody atmosphere in Underwater or about unassuming music fun in Golden Air. From Tori Amos- to Spiritualized-like, the music vibes here are taken from all over the place and it works. It does sound like music from a psychedelic, fairy-tale musical but it's only for the better. No wonder that it is being referred to as a "Alice in Wonderland journey through life and music" - everything checks: the weird, the psychedelic and the charming.  

Sun's Signature costs 5 USD.

Check: Underwater 

Country: UK

Genre: dreamy art pop

Label: Partisan Records

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Neon Iglu - Stranput (2022)

This is official my first post on a Croatian music project on this blog and it comes as a result of my journey to the Zagreb's INmusic Festival. I didn't manage to see Neon Iglu live there but their new (and debut) album is certainly worth catching up to.

Stranput contains "cathartic compositions of noise, kraut-rock and noise pop inclinations": there's complex and very artsy but also slow and not-very-overwhelming music that in some parts is clearly a guitar-based post-rock while in some other is more inspired by (post)jazz genres. This is this kind of music that can hardly bore anyone as it changes so fast and contains so many elements. One of them are vocals - soft and melancholic, very space rock-like, more often than not lost within the music. The band is also very fluent in captivating the audience within their compositions - this is this psychedelic rock's influence and I appreciate it very much.

Stranput costs 7 EUR.

Check: Omen

Country: Croatia

Genre: psychedelic post-rock

Label: Geenger Records

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Yoo Doo Right - A Murmur, Boundless to the East (2022)

The Montreal-based Yoo Doo Right were one of the biggest gigs during this year's dunk!festival. Live they present a loud and exciting volcano of emotions but on their albums their music feels more nuanced and artistically complex. A year after their fantastic debut on Don't Think You Can Escape Your Purpose, they released at least as good followup in the form of A Murmur, Boundless to the East.

And accordingly, they describe their own sound as a concoction of numerous genres that in the end results in "crafting a unique sound that could be described as a >>car crash in slow motion<<". Such a fitting summary and I can totally see it: many different elements everywhere, not-too-fast tempo and the feeling of overwhelming energy. This is their music all right. Probably the best way to simplify it is labeling the music as psychedelic post-rock. On one hand the complicated structures of the compositions as well as the very psychedelic rock-specific vocals, on the other the guitar passages that grow and grow in a tension-building way (so great in SMB) that leave no one unsatisfied. 

The two worlds are iconically combined in the album-finishing Feet Together, Face Up, on the Front Lawn, a psychedelic rock anthem sung in short phrases that ends with mind-blowing guitar heaviness.

A Murmur, Boundless to the East costs 7.5 EUR (9.99 CAD).

yoo doo right - Don't Think You Can Escape Your Purpose (2021)

Check: Feet Together, Face Up, on the Front Lawn

Country: Canada

Genre: psychedelic post-rock

Label: Mothland

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Blankenberge - Everything (2021)

When they debuted back in 2017 with their Radiogaze, there was little doubt that it was the beginning of an Eastern shoegaze icon in the works. And four years and three album later, you can safely agree that the Russian Blankenberge is one of the best heavy shoegaze bands out there and they just proved it with Everything.

This is not indie rock with shoegaze elements, this is not airy dream pop, the Petersburg's outfit clearly went all in the true shoegaze tunes. Their sound is extremely loud with tons of guitar-based walls of noise and subtle, barely legible vocals. Everything is designed to suck the audience into the loud and psychedelic world of noise, bury them within reverbs, trap them under layers of sound. And this is the best feeling ever with Yana Guselnikova's Slowdive-like vocals making this a sweet and memorable experience. There's little point in recommending any particular song, the whole album feels like a coherent and well-leveled whole, a noise adventure if you will. But some parts do feel even more ethereal thanks to the density of dispersed backing vocals that fill out and compliment the guitar noise, like it is the case with the title track Everything.

The lyrics here deal with the human lives' basic but fundamental questions: what's the nature of happiness, what's the nature of relationships and, yes, about being high as a kite. Everything fits shoegaze's euphoric and a bit bombastic vibes and I'm here to feel that. Can't wait for some live gigs by the Russians and their friends from Life on Venus.

Everything costs 7 USD.

Blankenberge - Radiogaze (2017)

Blankenberge - More (2019)

Check: Everything 

Country: Russia

Genre: true shoegaze

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seizure sister - witness (2021)

If the Texas-based artist's moniker is a reference to Scissor Sisters, the music doesn't show it in any way. He makes a slow-paced but heavy take on noisy but ethereal music. And shows his creation to the public on his debut EP called witness.

His music is built on the heavy guitars - soft voice opposition. The airiness of the artist's voice soothes the roughness of the backgrounds, creating a really well-shaped dreamy soundscape.  Regarding the guitar music itself, you can more or less hear that it's a one-man project. This sense of minimalism doesn't take anything from this music, quite on the contrary, it's somehow more genuine this way. It also goes along with the feeling of grunge/stoner rock vibes the album gives and, similarly to the last week's Day Aches, this is what is fairly unique and definitely attention-grabbing in his music. Especially when particularly coarse sounds of the guitars are soften by particularly dreamy backing vocals (like in the finish of pinpoint). The album is kept in a rather slow tempo, however, when the artist feels like it, he can create a really involving, fast  but still airy composition (yes, under you is something you can't miss here).

witness costs 5 USD.

Check: Fawn

Country: Texas, US

Genre: dream grunge

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Day Aches - Promo "21 (2021)

This is only a short promo EP but it is so interesting I couldn't just skip it. Day Aches are from Washington D.C. and create "monolithic, heavy, yet, dreamy sound". There's not much material here but it's juicy enough to give it a try.

What draws me to their music is the opposition: the vocals here are one of the softest in dreamy music while guitars - one of the heaviest. There's something from heavy rock, stoner music here, or, as the artists see it, grunge, mostly in the massive riffs and crushing ambiance. The psychedelic guitars know no rest throughout the three short compositions on the release and have to be balanced by the airy, particularly dreamy vocals. The band have all they need to create ethereal music. Their works exist to remind us of one of the truest things in life, one that is also seen as a cliche but this doesn't mean it's not right: "to truly appreciate the great moments in life, one must come face to face with bad ones". And this sums up the balance between the harsh and heavy and the soft and soothing in their sound.

Promo "21 costs 2 USD.

Check: Shed

Country: Washington D.C., US

Genre: dream grunge

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gloomchurch - Matching Luck (2021)

Gloomchurch are from Portland and they make their own take on the very noisy rock from the 90s. The band consists of experienced artists but this is only their second EP together and Matching Luck makes a great addition to the shoegazey music worldwide.

Their list of influences is long and involves the likes of MBV, Slowdive, Spiritualized and other legends of shoegaze and space rock. No wonder that this album is like a love letter to the 90s airy music, there's everything one would associate them with: light melodies with uplifting, though withdrawn and distorted vocals accompanied by the omnipresent guitar noise that is even more beautiful than the vocals. It brings a lot of shoegaze's mesmerizing heaviness that is not only fantastic but also imposes those nostalgic and simply sad vibes on the otherwise fun compositions. I love the depth and quality of this noise, especially in flintheart glomgold, the track with the catchiest chorus and the most dense psychedelic atmosphere here.

Matching Luck costs 8 USD.

Check: flintheart glomgold

Country: Oregon, US

Genre: noisy nugaze

Label: watercollectivetransmissions

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Superdone - ▽ (2021)

It seems that a year on that blog is not complete without posting about the British band Superdrone. I did so about The Creation in 2019 and Solargaze last year and the artists get better and better so I can't really stop. 2021's mysteriously entitled ▽ brings the best from ethereal space rock out there.

The band's sound's specialty is the smooth, mesmerizing synths that make the audience go deeper and deeper this sonic world without even realizing. This is complimented with space rock attributes like the ethereal vocals and psychedelic vibes in their compositions, as well as, and that's not an obvious thing, being melodic and extremely catchy. There's a few songs here you can instantly catch up on, one being We Are One with its slightly retro form and dreamy atmosphere or the surprisingly synthpop-like Morning Light that really stands out within the atmosphere of the album.

The clue of the album, however, lies in its ability to create trance-worthy, mesmerizing compositions of the most psychedelic, even if toned down with the dreamy atmosphere, quality like Sperisphere for example or the ethereal blizzard of Eternala. And those craziness- and mood-rich storms are what you should reach for the album for.

▽ costs 7 GBP.

Superdrone - Solargaze (2020)

Superdrone - The Creation (2019)

Check: We Are One

Country: UK

Genre: ethereal space rock

Label: Sdrone Records

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Presents for Sally - Look Skyward And Take It On (2021)

Presents for Sally is a British band that is inspired by "1980's/early 1990's guitar music but always manages to stay unique". The Exeter artists have already 4 long plays in their discography (including a great collaboration with one of my favourite shoegaze projects 93MillionMilesFromTheSun), the fourth one being this year's Look Skyward And Take It On.

There's absolutely no doubt about their inspirations. The album is filled with noisy but also lively and carefree-sounding songs of lower audio quality that could as well be taken from the first shoegaze/noise rock wave's albums, they remind me mostly of the early Ride but there surely is more in the inspirations jar here. There's everything that was back there - and it's a good thing. The dispersed and not very clear and loud vocals sing simple but melodic songs while the backgrounds present this oldschool, noisy psychedelic rock (in oppose to the modern, overwhelming noise that is very often the thing now) that feels light and genuinely joyful. And the lo-fi ambiance makes it all very authentic.

Sometimes, the British create also this exceptionally psychedelic noisy haze that goes and goes on (and should go on forever) that is so very mesmerizing. It's most noticeable in the album's longest track When We All Move Away and I must say, this is what I like here the most.

Look Skyward And Take It On costs 3.99 GBP.

Check: When We All Move Away

Country: UK

Genre: original noise rock

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This Lonely Crowd - Bellelouder (2021)

This is one of the most prominent alternative bands on the Brazilian scene. It doesn't mean they are very popular outside of the country, I hadn't heard of them before honestly, but I can safely say that they should be. This year they released their 8th album in the over a decade-long career and entitled it Bellelouder.

What they do is a great rendition of what the 90s. noisy rock was. Very indie rock-like but also extremely noisy and rough in form, the songs here could as well be recorded 20 years ago by The Jesus and Mary Chain or some other, similar artists. The psychedelic spirit of this music means, however, that the compositions here are far from straightforward ones, they can easily be a harsher pop rock hit song but also a psychedelic guitar-fest going well without much vocals and form as well. This, together with the retro vibes, means that you can hardly get bored while listening to the release.

There's also another thing, I know it's probably not true but I can sense (or imagine) some interesting inspirations taken from Neil Gaiman's works. Like the cover art similar to the ones from Sandman comics written by the author or a made-up word "Neverwhere" casually used in a track title. I'm probably reaching (mostly because Gaiman is one of my favourite writers), but it would be super interesting if true.

Bellelouder costs 4 USD.

Check: Avisrara

Country: Brazil

Genre: retro noise rock

Label: Sinewave

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TheseEyesRadiate - Crashing Waves (2021)

These Eyes Radiate "are not a band, [they] don't play live and [they]'re not coming to a town near you". This is, however, a solo project by Theo Yiannaki from London, a musician involved in such bands as Betazoids, Starhead or Feed the Wolf. And even if he's not going to play in a town near you, you can always check his first EP since 2012 under this moniker, called Crashing Waves.

It consists of three songs that are all about indie rock with big focus on noisy, very guitar-oriented backgrounds. It does feel a bit lo-fi in some places but the clue is there: it's supposed to be melodic and noisy at the same time. It's achieved with choruses based on short phrases that make their way to the audience minds immediately, as well as with double vocals in the ballad-like-turned-space-rock Into the Deep Blue Sea and some very powerful guitars in Stuck In The Back Of Your Mind. It's not really shoegaze or noise pop but it's close and I dig this sound.

Crashing Waves costs 3 GBP.

Check: Into the Deep Blue Sea

Country: UK

Genre: noisy indie rock

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Monochrome - Monochrome (2020)

This is some story. Once upon a time, there was a shoegaze band called Monochrome who managed to perform only ones at the The Spiral rock club for around 20 people. Then they split up but we can now witness what we lost because of that as the live gig's recording has been found and released as this short EP.

And quite frankly, it's a sad story too. Monochrome's music seems to have been a top quality shoegaze music that could stand out even in its time - it was the early 90s, the peak of the first wave of shoegaze, now legendary, bands. Its slow waves generate such an intensive, nostalgic and immersive atmosphere that it makes me jealous of those 20 people who could experience it live. Not to mention that it is first of all thanks to the violins adding up to the overwhelming feeling of nostalgia. Especially that the vocals here sound like the male version of Slowdive's Rachel Goswell, helped from time to time by female backing vocals (that eventually take the lead) and it's such a good combo. The one track that really stands out is definitely Never Ending Eyes, one I'm going go back to often.

Monochrome costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: Never Ending Eyes

Country: New York, US

Genre: original shoegaze

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Arpina - Spacenation (2020) EN

Spacenation is a debut EP from Arpiny, a band from, attention, Syria. And although they are here mostly because of their potential, the music on the album shows some really solid airy approach to post-rock genre.

The album clearly sounds very much lo-fi and the question if it's on purpose or just because of lacks in production is really quite straightforward. Still, those few tracks here show a good taste in creating inspired, ethereal atmosphere with loud guitars and climactic backing vocals that appear in Reborn and do their job there. In Space Nation  it gets more space-ish while Stalking Stelars makes a very instrumental ambient journey that transforms into Stargaze, the only song with vocals - super noisy but also atmospheric. The ability to deal with various genres is a great advantage and I'm waiting for the Syrians to show more their stuff.

Spacenation costs 10 USD.

Check: Stargaze 

Country: Syria

Genre: lo-fi airy post-rock

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Arpina - Spacenation (2020) PL

Spacenation to debiutancka EP-ka Arpiny, zespołu z, uwaga, uwaga, Syrii. I chociaż jest tu trochę na zachętę i z uwagi na potencjał, muzyka na niej to naprawdę solidne eteryczne podejście do instrumentalnego post-rocka.

Płyta zdradza tendencję do bycia lo-fi i na ile to celowy zabieg a na ile niedostatki w produkcji można się chyba domyślać. Niemniej, te kilka zaprezentowanych kawałków pokazuje ogromny zmysł do tworzenia natchnionej, eterycznej atmosfery za pomocą tak głośnych gitar jak i klimatycznych chórków, które pojawiają się w Reborn i robią w nim dobrą robotę. W Space Nation  robi się bardziej kosmicznie a Stalking Stelars to już bardzo ambientowa podróż, która przeradza się w jedyny na płycie kawałek z wokalami w Stargaze - bardzo trzeszczący ale też klimatyczny. Umiejętność radzenia sobie w różnych klimatach to już duży plus i czekam aż Syryjczycy pokażą więcej materiału.

Spacenation kosztuje 37 złotych (10 USD).

Sprawdź: Stargaze 

Kraj: Syria

Szufladka: lo-fi airy post-rock

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Nothing - The Great Dismal (2020) EN

The Pennsylvanian Nothing obviously make a very well-known brand on the nugaze stage, their melodic compositions and on-purpose not really beautiful cover arts are known to any fan of the genre. This year the Americans released their fourth album and you can safely say that they only go up.

It's no surprise that The Great Dismal is another album recently that is inspired by the pandemics and explores "existentialist themes of isolation, extinction, and human behavior in the face of 2020’s vast wasteland". Just like the situation this year, the album starts peacefully though in a very moody way in A Fabricated Life only to get rapidly sped up. Already in Say Less we do heave loud guitars and distortions clearly put in the foreground. Not to mention how awesome this track is in general - everything fits perfectly here: melodies, vocals, guitar noise and samples.

Another tracks balance between indie rock notes with clear vocals and riffing guitars (as in Catch a Fade) and what we love the band for the most: dense, shoegazing backgrounds filling the space with the melodic loudness. Exactly this ability to merry the noisy with the pop-like melodies is fascinating in the Americans' works, and on this new album it's audible not only in Say Less but also in Bernie Sandersie, In Blueberry Memories or Blue Mecca. I love it.

The Great Dismal costs 9.99 USD.

Check: Say Less

Country: Pennsylvania, US

Genre: melodic nugaze

Label: Relapse Records

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