Foghazer - He Left The Temple (2026)

Take the artist's image, song titles, label and even the name, Foghazer, and try not to be surprised when you hear the music behind it, I dare you. The black-metal-facade meeting the trip-hop core sound of the Berlin-based artist is really just something else. And yes, the trippy beats and scratches are followed by metal guitar backgrounds, but the effect is still peculiar. In the best possible way.

This also means that Foghazer's debut album is one of very few trip-hop-adjacent releases that don't bore me. Unfortunately, I struggle to enjoy the genre I once thought might become my favourite. Something clicked in my mind in the wrong way. But it seems that what I need it a dose of originality. And yes, I recognize that this is probably a very amateur project, the quality of the guitar parts is not great, but I value the complexity and diversity of compositions a lot, enough to give the project an OK with a note "keep an eye on". 

According to Foghazer, the album is filled with the so-called "sound of low visibility", "slow beats, distorted memory and fog as both space and emotion" in his words mesmerize the audience with ease while the addition of surprising but so well-fitted elements (like the fantastic, Igorrr-like opera vocals in He) add up to the originality of this music even more.

He Left The Temple costs what you want to pay.

Check: He

Country: Germany

Genre: death trip-hop

Label: Hypnotic Dirge Records

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SPC ECO - Hello (2025)

There are a few bands who refuse to publish their work on Spotify or do so in a limited way. And while I respect this decision and back all the efforts for achieving justice in the music industry, my playlist-focused way of listening to music is hurt. One of the bands are the Bandcamp's giants from UK who released their... I can't even count that high. They released ANOTHER great album.

Their signature electronica-heavy trip-hop music with a strong ethereal atmosphere on top is back. The Rose Berlin - Dean Garcia duo (helped, as always, by Jarek Leśkiewicz from Poland) doesn't stray away from what they do best: mixing the melodies with dense electronica and so creating melancholic and psychedelic musical paintings. Those can be extremely catchy and hit-worthy (like the title track Hello) or serving as mood-producing little machines. It's no surprise that the album is dedicated to the late David Lynch. It's the mood that matters.

Hello costs 11 EUR (9 GBP).

Check: Hello

Country: UK

Genre: dreamy trip-hop

SPC ECO - Calm (2017)

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cash - deluged (2022)

As far as I know, Cash debuted as an artist focused mostly on piano compositions. And while he was really good at this, those times are long gone. The India-born musician is now way more interested in the electronic sounds ranging freely from trip-hop to ambient and he proves it on his third album called deluged.

The synthy ambient soundscapes (a world of difference) are presented against the very trip-hop songs like submerged, creating together a unique experience that brings everything electronic music can be liked for. But it doesn't mean that Cash lost interest in the beauty of keys either: you can easily hear how good they sound in the bass-heavy asphyxia and the calmer plumeria. And the further the album goes, the more neoclassical it gets. The pace gets down, the subtle beauty of piano keys goes up. The airiness and the nostalgia-inducing ability of the album's finish is really something to go back to.

deluged costs 7 USD.

c a s h, 4lienetic - Abstract (2019)

c a s h - collision course (2019)

Cash - The Sounds My Heart Makes EP (2018)

Check: deluged (rework)

Country: Massachusetts, US

Genre: moody electronica

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GLÖDER - THE FALL (2022)

I have to say that I dig everything Dean Garcia is involved in. From SPC ECO to Blurred City Lights, his name is always a hint that something very interesting is brewing there. This time, together with his Inkraktare's friend Mark Wallbridge and Bloody Knives' Preston Maddox, he makes up the line-up of GLÖDER.

And, this is not surprising at all, he brings the good trip-hop vibes to the project. The music of GLÖDER is based on the smooth, electronica backgrounds and Maddox's vocals that feel like trip-hop filtered through post-punk aesthetics (in Can't Forget) and dream pop's beauty, and it works like a charm. While the songs are not very loud nor fast, they are catchy nevertheless with unique mood and tunes (Elysium Horrors being my favourite here) only to disappear in the noisy finish of Kill What You Love. This is the perfect balance of trip-hop's electronica and noisy genres' ambiance.

THE FALL costs 5 EUR (4 GBP).

Blurred City Lights - Micropolis (2022)

Blurred City Lights - Volker (2018)

SPC ECO - Calm (2017)

Check: Elysium Horrors

Country: UK

Genre: noisy trip-hop

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Deary - Fairground (2022)

I rarely post here demo albums, but, truth be told, Deary's Fairground hardly sounds like one. Sure, the sound is not perfect, but it's a subtlety that can easily be overlooked as the London-based duo's music is simply captivating and I cannot wait for more from their side.

It's clear that the artists are mostly inspired by the noise pop/dream pop genres and they draw from those with fantastic results. Their music is accordingly dreamy and ethereal with the female vocals adding to the oneiric charm. But I feel like there's also something from trip-hop's compositions here and indie pop's tunes. It reminds me somewhat of another London-based recent debuts by White Flowers, but Deary are faster and more rock-oriented I feel. Still, the work they do with the looped vocals in Heaven feels... just like heaven really.

Fairground costs 3,5 EUR (3 GBP).

Check: Heaven 

Country: UK

Genre: dreamy noise pop

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Deserta - Every Moment, Everything You Need (2022)

I am no doubt a fan of Matt Doty's work. His solo debut Black Aura My Sun was probably the best album of 2020 I missed and didn't include on this blog. I'm not going to make the same mistake again, especially that Every Moment, Everything You Need is at least as good as its predecessor. 

Doty's signature sound is the heavier and slower face of shoegaze music. This is the kind of sound that lazily pours out of speakers and drowns everything around in the melancholic, tear-jerking atmosphere. It doesn't have any troubles with catching the audience attention either - the mesmerizing abilities are hidden in the heavy layers of sound that keep overwhelming the audience throughout the release. In some places, his music makes me think of a heavier version of Hanging Valleys or Crushed Stars with its slowcore and superdreamy mood, but in other, it's surprisingly a dreamy variation on trip-hop as Where Did You Go openly shows this ethereal electronica inspirations.

Quite suitably for the music, the lyrics are filled with melancholia and worn out emotions. There's little fire in the artist's words, it's more about acceptation of the sad, dark places one could find oneself in as in Goodbye Vista: "I left/ Mindless/ Just want to reach you... Where was the insight/ Where was your mind". If you want to drown in melancholic music, this is the first address to go to.

Every Moment, Everything You Need costs 8 USD.

Check: Visions

Country: California, US

Genre: thick shoegaze

Label: felte

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Blurred City Lights - Micropolis (2022)

Blurred City Lights appeared on this blog once before, back in 2018, when the duo released their second album Volker. But the artists themselves have been a big part of this blog anyway: Dean Garcia with the phenomenal trip-hop SPC ECO and Jarek Leśkiewicz as Opollo or half of Sunset Wrecks. There was little doubt that the new release from the two should be posted about here.

The whole project balances on the border between dreamy genres and trip-hop and progressive rock. Somehow, for me, Leśkiewicz's vocals are exactly between Riverside's Mariusz Duda and Slowdive's Rachel Goswell. If one had to label this music, they would probably go for dreamy trip-hop though, and I can absolutely hear that (especially in the parts where both are helped by another familiar face, the second half of SPC ECO - Rose Berlin). I appreciate both artist's skills in creating this trip-hoppy soundscape filled with subtle beats and imagine-fuelling electronic sounds all over them. However, this wouldn't be a complete picture since the duo are also well suited for guitar sounds as well, sometimes quite heavy, sometimes quite grungy and riff-oriented. It really is a blend of many things and as such, could only be appreciated. Especially that the whole album feels very coherent with its airy and surreal atmosphere that happens to be expressed in many different ways.

Micropolis costs 7.5 EUR (6 GBP).

Blurred City Lights - Volker (2018)

Check: All My Days

Country: UK/Poland

Genre: ethereal trip-hop

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The Dreamless Sleep - A Breath of Colour | 2016​-​2020 (2021)

I know Matthew Chastney's project from the absolutely outstanding single Until the Sea, one I posted about almost exactly a year ago. Since then, the British artist gathered a good amount of material from the last four years and produced an album/collection called A Breath of Colour.

I knew what to expect and I am not disappointed at all. The artist's music makes a dense and dark take on electronic pop music with very noticeable traces of trip-hop. The compositions leave impressions of warmth and cosiness; they are all about feelings with the quiet love and painful melancholia seemingly accentuated the most. Until the Sea definitely remains my favourite one here, it's just too good, too dreamy and moody to say otherwise - this song slowly disappears in the sea of noisy electronica and this parallel with the lyrics is precious. 

In his work, Chastney is helped by a multitude of talented artists. The lyrics are sung by such people as October's Child's Britt Warner, “Songland" (NBC’s talent reality show) contender Axel Mansoor or singer and actress Faye Nightingale while other guest artists add the neoclassical vibes to Chastney's compositions with violin, cellos and trumpets all present in the atmospheric backgrounds. This makes the album rich and complex in a very artistic way.

A Breath of Colour | 2016​-​2020 costs 6 USD.

Check: Until the Sea 

Country: UK

Genre: dark electronic pop

Label: Through the Static Records

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Inwavves - This Summer (2021)

Formerly known as Adasteris (a name that still shows in many places and is now used as a moniker for a small label the artists established), Inwavves is a band from Dublin that "combines elements of alternative metal, shoegaze, post-rock and Boards of Canada-esque electronica into it's own sound" and their (what seems to be the third) album This Summer shows how gracefully they can do that.

The music here is clearly a combination of several music genres. The overall psychedelic rock atmosphere encompasses very dreamy vocals that appear concurrently with metal-like screams (slightly hidden in the backgrounds, so impressive in Siebenundsiebzig) in what can only be described as trip-hop-like dreamy compositions. They can, and usually do, easily get louder and strictly guitar-based (as is the case in This Summer, the title track) and turn into post-rock-like crescendos. Truly, almost every track here sounds as if taken from a different music world, while together they still seem to keep a coherent whole. So there's some neoclassicism in Forever, some dad-rock guitar riffs in Someday Soon or the already mentioned metal-like vocals. This complexity of genres, this eclectic style of the band is something that attracts towards this release.

This Summer costs 7 EUR.

Check: Siebenundsiebzig

Country: Ireland

Genre: eclectic psychedelic rock

Label: Ad Asteris

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Horte - Maa antaa yön vaientaa (2021)

There's some dreamy/shoegaze projects from Finland I really enjoy and now, after the likes of Radio Supernova and Mumrunner, it's time for the quartet called Horte. The band released their third album Maa antaa yön vaientaa via Pelagic Records this summer and there's no reason not to try it if you are an ethereal music fan. 

The album's title, as far as I understand, translates roughly to "The earth lets the night shut (itself?) down", referring to the darker but also calmer take on the dreamy music they go with. There's not so much of traditional guitar noise here, the airy vibes come mostly from the atmospheric vocals singing in Finnish (it's always something that in my mind adds to the mystery and attractiveness of foreign music) while music is something that borders slowcore-like indie rock or trip-hop with the way it draws from electronica-influenced backgrounds and experimental add-ons. This concoction makes it feel not only very fresh but also extremely artsy, you can see that the musicians must know well what they do.

In this view, Kun joki haihtuu is a special track, the first that shows the louder, the noisier side of the project, the one that is soaked with the unnerving but also exciting atmosphere. Together with Väisty tieltä they create a satisfying and very shoegaze-like finish, which only proves there's little the band can't carry out.

Maa antaa yön vaientaa costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: Kun joki haihtuu

Country: Finland

Genre: trip-hop shoegaze

Label: Pelagic Records

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Grive - Grive (2021)

Paul Régimbeau has just appeared on the blog with his band FOUDRE! who released a brilliant, industrial, ambient-infused album Future Sabbath. And he's back already due to him being the half of the new duo called Grive who just showed their first EP.

The other half is the French singer-songwriter Agnès Gayraud, also known as La Féline, and it's her who plays the major role at the beginning of the album. The electronically-biased backgrounds are subtle here and exist to underline Gayraud's catchy and at the same time airy voice. Still, the music here has clear dark vibes: when it's pop, it's dark pop, when the electronics take over, it's dark trip-hop with industrial hints all over the place. And this happens fast, Kingdom  consists entirely of a one-liner chorus drowned in murky waters of electronica and guitar sounds while Burger Shack, still very much an electronic track, gives more space for Gayraud again. Still, my favourite one here is the finisher in Coal Mine - a track that combines all of the above with heavy post-rock vibes in the final part. Great debut!

Grive costs 4 EUR.

FOUDRE! - Future Sabbath (2021)

Check: Coal Mine

Country: France

Genre: dark electronic pop

Label: Schubert Music Publishing

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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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Bungalow Depression - Blank Slate (2020) EN

Bungalow Depression is a trio out of Normandy in the works of which the ethereal atmosphere mixes with electronica with perfect ratio. At least it's what it's like on their debut album, November's Blank State z listopada.

The albums is opened by the single track The Whirl that is characterized by very nervous and pulsating electronic sounds in the backgrounds on which the whole composition is built. After a while it evolves in a very industrial direction while it's being ornamented by especially interesting vocals by Anne-Laure Labaste. It's a filled with dream pop vibes while also indie pop-like catching. What can't be denied are also trip-hop inspirations, especially Sad Day proves that the musicians have to be fans of Massive Attack.

Dense, dream pop haze is reached especially in Silent Voice in which the air gets stifling from the vocals and electronic mist. This ethereal-electronic-industrial atmosphere lasts throughout the whole album, one so unique in the way it sounds being a marriage between the oldschool dream pop and modern electronic music.

Blank Slate costs 7 EUR.

Check: Silent Voice

Country: France

Genre: industrial dream pop

Label: SOZA

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Bungalow Depression - Blank Slate (2020) PL

Bungalow Depression to trio z Normandii, w którego twórczości eteryczne klimaty mieszają się w wyśmienitych proporcjach z elektroniką. A przynajmniej jest tak na ich debiutanckim albumie Blank State z listopada.

Płytę zaczyna singlowy The Whirl odznaczający się bardzo niepokojącą i pulsującą elektroniką, na której zbudowana jest cała kompozycja. Po chwili rozwija się w bardzo industrialnym kierunku, a wszystko okraszone jest wyjątkowo interesującym wokalem Anne-Laure Labaste. Jest on trochę eteryczny w dreampopowych klimatach, z drugiej indiepopowo przebojowy. Nie można zapominać o trip-hopowych inspiracjach zespołu, zwłaszcza Sad Day sprawia wrażenie jakby muzycy byli wielkimi fanami Massive Attack.

Gęsty, dreampopowy haze osiągają zwłaszcza w Silent Voice, gdzie od wokali i elektronicznej mgły aż duszno jest w powietrzu. Ten eteryczno-elektroniczno-industrialny klimat utrzymuje się na całej, unikalnej w swoim brzmieniu płycie będącej poniekąd połączeniem oldschoolowego dream popu i nowoczesnej muzyki elektronicznej.

Blank Slate kosztuje 32 złote (7 EUR).

Sprawdź: Silent Voice

Kraj: Francja

Szufladka: industrial dream pop

Label: SOZA

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OO - O (2020) PL

O OO nie wiele wiadomo i, siłą rzeczy, ciężko cokolwiek znaleźć w sieci. Wiadomo jednak, że projekt pochodzi z francuskiego Bordeaux i wydał na początku roku bardzo interesującą EP-kę zatytułowaną, oczywiście, O.

Muzyka na niej to stonowany trip-hop, albo elektroniczny dream pop, w każdym razie z jednej strony eteryczna/oniryczna atmosfera i niespieszące się donikąd ballady, z drugiej elektroniczne tła i ambientowe zapędy. Do tego dochodzi wokal będący w pewien sposób trip-hopowym odpowiednikiem dream popowych głosów, tak jak muzyka, czerpiącym garściami z obu źródeł. A żeby to jeszcze lepiej speuntować, płytę zamyka z kolei przepiękny ambientowy soundscape dowodzący, ze artysta stojący za projektem zna się na wielu rzeczach.

O kosztuje tyle, ile chcesz zapłacić.

Sprawdź: Migaloo

Kraj: Francja

Szufladka: dream trip-hop

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OO - O (2020) EN

There's next to nothing that is known about OO and, as you can imagine, it's really difficult to google. The things we know is that the projects comes form the French Bordeaux and at the beginning of the year released an interesting EP called, of course, O.

The music here could be tagged as a tone-down trip-hop or electronic dream pop, in both cases it's airy/oneiric atmosphere and never-hurrying ballads on one hand and electronic backgrounds and ambient aspirations on the other. And then there is also the vocal that is somewhat the trip-hop version of the dream pop voices, just like the music, drawing a lot from both genres. And to sum this up, the album is closed by an exceptionally beautiful ambient soundscape proving that the artist knows something about a lot of things.

O costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: Migaloo

Country: France

Genre: dream trip-hop

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Ivatu - Enormous and Mild (2019) EN

Created by the three artists: multi-instrumentalist Anton, poet Eava and producer Pavel, the Moscow-based trio Ivatu makes music from the border of trip-hop and sung poetry using mostly old-school ways (according to the wabi-sabi aesthetics). This is how the EP called Enormous and Wild was created.

Especially this poetic side of the project sounds the most spectacular. Eava sings her lyrics with her fantastically mesmerizing voice balancing between unsettling whispers and expressive confession (as in the brilliant Haunt). Another plus is that their trip-hop music is significantly different from other similar projects - dark and nervous pulsating in the background, sad sounds of strings and other instruments adding to the overall atmosphere of the songs.

The already mentioned approach to avoid using typical modern ways of delivering electronic music fits here perfectly. When recording, Ivatu used "vintage drummachines, samplers, synths and guitars" making the atmosphere unique and at the same time dark and tribal/folk (Heat & Hatchet, ladies and gentlemen).

Enormous and Mild costs 6 EUR.

Check: Heat & Hatchet

Country: Russia
Genre: dark trip-hop

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Ivatu - Enormous and Mild (2019) PL

Założone przez trójkę artystów: multi-instrumentalistę Antona, poetkę Eavę i producenta Pavla moskiewskie trio Ivatu tworzy muzykę z pogranicza trip-hopu i poezji śpiewanej, a przy tym stara się używać do tego oldschoolowych metod (estetyki wabi-sabi). Tak powstała EP-ka Enormous and Wild.

Właśnie poetycka warstwa projektu brzmi najbardziej spektakularnie. Eava swoje teksty śpiewa fantastycznie hipnotyzującym głosem balansującym między niepokojącym szeptem a ekspresyjnym wyznaniem (chociażby we wspaniałym Haunt). Do tego trip-hopowa muzyka jest całkiem inna niż w większości projektów tego gatunku - mroczne i nerwowe pulsowanie w tle, smutne dźwięki strun i innego instrumentarium dodającego mnóstwa punktów do klimatyczności kawałków. 

Znakomicie znajduje się w tym wspomniane podejście do nieużywania współczesnych atrybutów wykonawców muzyki elektronicznej. Ivatu użyli w nagraniu "vintage'owe automaty perkusyjne, samplery, synthy i gitary" co daje niepowtarzalny, jednocześnie mroczny i tribalowo-folkowy klimat (Heat & Hatchet proszę państwa). 

Enormous and Mild kosztuje 26 złotych (6 EUR).

Sprawdź: Heat & Hatchet

Kraj: Rosja

Szufladka: dark trip-hop

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Two Demons - Momentum (2019) EN

Momentum is an album from Russia, that is filled with thick, oozing ambient sounds. The project responsible is called Two Demons and there's nothing about them in the Net, but it's no obstacle for enjoying this music.

The ambient offered by the Russian is made of overlaid ambient loops creating some thick, inscrutable and mesmerizing backgrounds on which there are elements appearing, like samples, voices, obstructions and sometimes even instruments like guitar or piano. And some trip-hop sounds. And some airy vocals (Momentum!). And still in this all-embracing space stew every one of those elements has a point.

Momentum kosztuje 1 USD.

Check: Momentum

Country: Russia

Genre: space ambient

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Two Demons - Momentum (2019) PL

Momentum to płyta z Rosji wypełniona po brzegi gęstym, sączącym się ambientem. Odpowiadający za nią projekt Two Demons jest zupełnie anonimowy w sieci, ale to nie przeszkadza cieszyć się ich muzyką.

Ambient proponowany przez Rosjanina to nawarstwiające się ambientowe loopy tworzące grube, nieprzeniknione i hipnotyzujące tło, na którym pojawiają się od czasu do czasu sample, głosy, zanieczyszczenia, a nawet instrumenty takie jak gitara czy pianino. A także kilka trip-hopowych dźwięków. I kilka eterycznych chórów (Momentum!). Niemniej we wszechogarniającej kosmicznej zupie to wszytko ma sens i cel.

Momentum kosztuje 4 złote (1 USD).

Sprawdź: Momentum

Kraj: Rosja

Szufladka: space ambient

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