Favorite Obsession - Bliss (2025)

Four years after their debut EP and almost exactly a year after their live appearance at Kraków's Shoefest, the young Czech band Favorite Obsession released their first ever full-length album entitled in the most shoegaze way possible. Bliss makes a promising debut with a number of melodies that are as catchy as one would like.

Recorded "in-between line-up changes, mental breakdowns and gender changes", the album presents a case study of indie rock music with a heavy influence from shoegaze and dream pop genres. There is a healthy dose of noise in this material (which was especially noticeable live!), but it's more about melodies, the fun from singing them aloud, the energy coming from the stage. At least in most of the songs because (Inside) I Bloom makes a beautiful, very intimate and emotional (just take a look at the lyrics, the song starts with "20 year old crisis/6 strings are helping me survive") ballad to provide some balance.

There is something weird going on in Taxi Driver and I can only assume that it's a way to stress that (Inside)... is such an important part of the album. If this is true, I'd make the silence shorter. Because it's not the end of the release! Of the engaging, catchy and very emotional release to be truthful.

Bliss costs 7.5 EUR (180 CZK).

Check: (Inside) I Bloom

Country: Czechia

Genre: noisy indie rock

Label: Golden Hive Studios

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Lazy Legs - Tower (2025)

It's been 8 years (!) since the Oregon band Lazy Legs appeared on this blog with their EP called Chain of Pink. Now, after what seems to be some changes in the line-up, they released their third album and enchanted me with their minimalist yet very airy take on slowcore kind of noise music.

The artists admit to take inspirations from a variety of genres, mixing "shoegaze, grunge, slowcore and doomgaze" into one, moody kind of music. It surely is slow, it's very airy and based on the rougher nature of guitar sounds. It feel also a lot like a letter of admiration to minimalist rock music usually made by duos (I'm thinking The Kills, but maybe it's because I've been listening to them a lot recently). It's maybe because the band now only consists of Laura Wagner and Michael Tenzer while before, there was also Nicholas Piontek playing drums. Regardless of the reasons, the band's music feels now closer to the audience, honest and beautiful in this desert, grunge way.

The rough guitar makes here a beautiful dialog with vocals that are not only made airy. They are literally very often just backing vocals playing the main part of the song. It makes the compositions well-balanced but also very, very dreamy regardless of the heaviness of the music. 

Tower costs 5 USD.

Check: Rot

Country: Oregon, US

Genre: shoegazey slowcore

Label: Wild Patterns

Lazy Legs - Chain of Pink (2017)

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我夢見長頸鹿對我說 [The Giraffe Told Me In My Dream] - Velvet Distortion (2025)

The "overly noisy, overly sweet" band from Taiwan with probably the craziest name out there is back with a new release! Six years after their first EP, the noisy machine gives us another small taste of what they can do with shoegaze music.

And I really mean shoegaze. It's not noisy rock, it's not atmospheric dream pop. It's very loud, very noisy and very dreamy shoegaze, true to the genre's origins. Driven by vocals that are absolutely gorgeous and ephemeral to the limits, making the audience feel as if they were immediate transported to their deepest, most intimate dreams. The music is a perfect fit here: noisy where it should be, euphoric when needed, slow and moody in other parts. A match made in heaven.

The only downside is that, once again, it is only a taste of what the Taiwanese are capable of. Basically three songs (with a short introduction) already shows a lot, but one would like to experience more. And more frequently than once in six years.

Velvet Distortion costs 4 USD.

Check: Glimpse

Country: Taiwan

Genre: true shoegaze

我夢見長頸鹿對我說 [The Giraffe Told Me In My Dream] - Slowfall (2019)

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Øystein Skar - Hem (2025)

The Norwegian pianist, most known for his role in the synthpop band Highasakite, Øystein Skar have released his solo debut via Moderna Records and the next sentences are probably very easy to predict: it's moody, it's atmospheric and it's the Norwegian landscape translated into piano notes.

The album is said to "merge the lyrical beauty of piano with the dynamic energy of electronic music, resulting in a fusion that is both innovative and compelling", but I have to say that I hear mostly the former. Hem, I'm sure it's not a coincidence that the title means "home" as the image of Norway is quite vivid in his music, at least in my ears, is all about slow, subtle piano compositions. There are parts where the faster, jazzy part of Skar's music education is audible, but it's rare. And yes, I'm happy they are. I'm here for the ambient music played on piano keys.

Hem costs 8 EUR (12 CAD).

Check: Ljos 

Country: Norway

Genre: piano soundscape

Label: Moderna Records

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Concepcion Huerta - El Sol de los Muertos (2025)

Sound textures, audio soundscapes, narratives delivered by notes only. Concepcion Huerta is a Mexican artist whose drones and ambient sounds create an emotional cocktail deeply rooted in her geographical background. The veins of the world are open again, just like the cover art suggests.

This emotional piece was created "entirely within a subharmonic framework and meticulously processed through tape manipulation". It has to be said that not all of the sounds here are gonna be pleasant, in fact, it's quite the opposite: some of the tracks are designed to evoke nightmares of deep undergrounds and the worlds of the dead. There is, however, no notion of morality here I think, described pictures are not terrifying or charming, they just are. It's the truth about the world as seen by the artist and as transcribed into these monumental soundscapes.

El Sol de los Muertos costs 7 EUR.

Check: El Sol de los Muertos

Country: Mexico

Genre: droney soundscape

Label: Umor-Rex

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T E S A - I N T E R V A L (2025)

The Latvian TESA is a band that never disappoints. Never. The Baltic giants create their metal-like heavy post-rock or rock-like light post-metal with grace and with consistency that characterize only great artists. Although their new album is entitles Interval, it doesn't feel like it's any kind of transition or pause. It's as good as ever been and ever will be, I'm sure of it.

The Eastern equivalent of the French heavy noise of Year of No Light start the album with a fast and heavy hit in the face. While the long tracks change pace and melodies very often, the first seconds of the album are here to remind you, dear listener, what are you signing up for. A hurricane of massive sounds that are designed to spare no one. It's interesting that the tracks are so diverse: there is many sudden changes so when the listener is emerged in one of the passages, they are brutally waken up from the trance by a different melody, different direction the track suddenly switches to.

Nevertheless, the sound here is quite literally overwhelming and forcing you to stop and fall in love with its relentless power. This is the very nature of TESA. 

I N T E R V A L costs 9 EUR.

Check: Interval II

Country: Latvia

Genre: massive post-rock

Label: My Proud Mountain

T E S A - C O N T R O L (2020)

TESA - G H O S T ( 2015)

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Go With Strangers - Ave, Reverie (2025)

Remember when mum used to tell you not to go with strangers? Well, you definitely can do that with this one. Eugene San is based in Malaysia and makes music as one-man band to "face his social anxiety". And the results? A fantastic set of noisy shoegaze songs.

I love how immersive the noise can be. When listening to songs like Breathe In, what you breathe in is the reverbing air and dreams that flow around trying to drown you in. And sometimes it is the shoegazey, dense, overwhelming kind of noise, but sometimes it can go in more surprising directions with some metal riffs in Misery (You'll Never Break Me). And I really can hardly say which song here is my favourite. The artist has a very special gift of writing very well-leveled compositions and every one of them is worth the listerner's attention. In the end, I chose Further with its captivating melody and tasty noise, but it could as well be any other track.

Interestingly enough, the album was made out of "fascination with the feeling of “Sonder” (...), which is the realisation that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own – populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and craziness", a theme good for a whole book, but really works as a base for a music album as well. The artist concludes that the album may be "a warm greeting, and also a bittersweet farewell, to dreams and daydreams". So it matches everyone's life at some point, no doubt about it.

Ave, Reverie costs 8 USD.

Check: Further

Country: Malaysia

Genre: immersive solo shoegaze

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