Stray Theories - Falter (2026)

A curious blend of various slow and atmospheric music genres has been recently served by a New Zealand-based artist Micah Templeton-Wolfe. His solo project Stray Theories is now on the 5th  (or 6th according to RYM) album and Falter is a-maze-ing! The thick as fog and moody as hell soundscape takes you to a melancholic but strangely cosy place.

His label advertises the new album as a blend of ambient, neoclassical and post-rock music that is so homogeneous that it doesn't resemble any one of them anymore. And I kinda agree: this music feels like a coherent mass of various things, but when you submerge yourself into the compositions, you don't know what it is around you. And you don't really need to know. The feeling is amazing anyway. You know what's important: the peacefulness, the weight of the sound, the beauty. Yes, this is how I imagine dreaming under a weight blanket.

Another words that appears a lot in the album's description is "cinematic". The soundscapes here indeed don't feel intimate, it's not something between you and the artist, it's so much more. In that way, I can see the reference to post-rock (cause formally there's little in common). And as a post-rock fan, I have to appreciate it.

Falter costs 9 USD.

Check: Lifelines

Country: New Zealand

Genre: atmospheric soundscape

Label: n5MD

:bandcamp:

:facebook:
:official:

:instagram:

:soundcloud:

:youtube:

:spotify:

Transmission Zero - Yes. And I Would Do It Again (2026)

Transmission Zero is a band I grew extremely attached to over the years. Hailing from the city I live in, they were the first local post-rock outfit I knew and decided to support. Even if the band has changed immensely since then, the feelings stayed. And I'm very happy to say that their third album proves their versatile ability to create immersive post-rock compositions. And also angry ones.

Local Hero that opens the album is a somewhat misleading track: it is slower, built on the atmosphere and the Poles quickly state that this time, it's not the case. The Kids' Gloves Are Off are such a perfect single track: the composition is not easy, meanders from rapid cascades into slower fragments and back, but the first thought that brings to your mind is "how a post-rock song can have such a punk energy?!" And when I look at the cover art and the whole visual identification around the album, I can see this again: the subtle post-rock aesthetics is replaced with shouting, bright-colored, California punk-rock like images. I see it and I hear it. Something's changed.

The frantic drums at No Such Thing as a Fair Fight or the incredible flow of A Devil You Do further prove the way the artists chose to follow from now on. No wonder the band themselves state the following: "This might be our third record, but it feels like a >second debut< for us". And finally, the titles themselves suggest that Transmission Zero are rebelling against the society, the human nature and, I guess, against being ashamed of anything you've done and you feel proud about. Cheers to that!

Yes. And I Would Do It Again costs 9 EUR.

Check: The Kids' Gloves Are Off

Country: Poland

Genre: guitar post-rock

Transmission Zero - Bridges (2021)

Transmission Zero - Transmission Zero (2019)

:bandcamp:

:facebook:

:instagram:

:youtube:

:spotify:

Sugar Horse - Not a Sound in Heaven (2026)

The messy and chaotic mix of nugaze, pop, post-metal and pure anger that boils with energy and noise! Yes, the Brits of Sugar Horse are back! The third album came quite soon after the last one and I couldn't be happier as it's exactly what I love in this Machine Girl meets Nothing project. It just makes me jump around, even on this grey and melancholic day.

Although they still call themselves "a decidedly average band", they don't fool anyone anymore. Three albums in and it's still a fresh and exciting take on modern noise music. Short phrases for short attention spin suffering audience, tons of shifts in paces and melodies, angry screaming being a neighbour of soft, atmospheric choruses. And it's all put together and melt into a perfect modern album that calls extreme eclecticism being "decidedly average". This blend is a mesmerizing one indeed.

It's only fitting that the lyrics here are slightly poetic but very timely comments on the reality around us. The reality that is equally chaotic and messy but also way less appealing. "Brought to heel/Trained not to feel" in Secret Speech and "Keep the market free/And if it bleeds/We can kill it for you" in Fire Graphics being only two examples of the poignant and not-so-fun-at-all themes on the album .Sugar Horse, the missing horseman of the Apocalypse.

Not a Sound in Heaven costs 6 EUR (5 GBP).

Check: Secret Speech

Country: UK

Genre: chaotic modern shoegaze

Label: Fat Dracula Records

Sugar Horse - The Live Long After (2021)

:bandcamp:

:facebook:

:instagram:

:spotify:

thrilled - no one for miles (2026)

Two short EPs and a single: this is the discography of the Dutch band thrilled so far. I met them at last year's Automatic Noise festival and it was a... thrilling experience marked by heavy atmosphere and energetic performance. No wonder I really had to post a bit about their newest release.

The Rotterdam-based outfit create shoegaze music that is both catchy and dripping with atmosphere. The guitars create a soft and fuzzy canvas that captivates me every time I listen to their songs. While the music is very much shoegaze-like, the vocals are more like withdrawn indie rock-inspired and I think it works quite well.  Well, at least in the first 33% of the album as the finishing  track, Tunnel, is a full-blown dreamy and loud shoegaze. It also happens to be my favourite here. The new EP is very short, but still manages to catch the attention of the audience. Easily. 

"The warm and fuzzy tones of thrilled are sure to give you all the goosebumps you need for the day" says their Bandcamp account. I agree. But why so short?

no one for miles costs 5 EUR.

Check: Tunnel

Country: The Netherlands

Genre: noise rock

:bandcamp:

:instagram:

:spotify:

Green Horizon - Blessing (2026)

I'm pretty sure I've said it before, but let me repeat myself: one of my favourite ambient pop artists comes from Taiwan and is definitely not well-known enough. Green Horizon has recently released her new EP on which she blends ambient pop with soft neoclassical tunes, everything honest, real and intimate.

The album is meant to be a blessing "for the forgotten, for the unloved, for those in pain" and I must say that the neoclassical beauty of the piano keys that sometimes lead the compositions here but sometimes also drown in peaceful noise are something that has to bring some kind of relief to anyone in need. It doesn't matter if the compositions are mostly piano soundscapes or if they are written around the airy vocals, all of them are beautiful.

I don't know much about the Asian poetry, but to me and to my layman heart, Green Horizon's lyrics feel very much like a rendition of poems form this part of the world. Honest and clearly indicating certain things, but still mysterious. Telling everything without telling everything. Which I guess is true to the music itself.

Blessing costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: Path

Country: Taiwan

Genre: piano ambient pop

Green Horizon - The Place I Buried Memories (2021)

Green Horizon - 沉睡 (2017)

:bandcamp:

:facebook:

:instagram:

:soundcloud:

:youtube:

David Boring - Liminal Beings and Their Echoes (2026)

Post-punk so energetic that makes you move uncontrollably and so catchy that could almost be heard on a radio? And coming from such an exotic place (from my perspective) as Hong Kong? BANGER! I'm so glad I discovered the exciting weirdness of David Boring just in time to feature their sophomore album on the blog.

It's not like the whole almost an hour long album is filled with adrenaline-fueling high-pulse music. Surprisingly, when you focus on this, most of the album is about the moody and intriguing parts that are slower but equally satisfying. But when the whole thing ends, you remember the moments that make you jump like crazy. In fact, the latter wouldn't really work without the former. I love the changes of pace between dark and moody Jenny Rotten, fantastically catchy Earth Song and the ballad in Visit Me (Cabin Song). So we have the dark, the catchy and the moody. And the whole album can be described in this way. Like going in and out of the best disco of your life.

There is also an element of the wild and angry noise somewhere there which makes the project on pair with noisy pop projects like Poppy but clearly more post-punk in origins than metal-adjacent. Anyway, I hear here also KOKOKO (again, in my favourite Earth Song) and a multitude of other influences and every one of them is amazing. And I haven't even mentioned the charisma-dripping vocalist who blends in with the genre changes effortlessly. Fantastic album.

Liminal Beings and Their Echoes costs 12 EUR (10 GBP). 

Check: Earth Song

Country: Hong Kong

Genre: dance punk

Label: Damnably/UN.TOMORROW

:bandcamp:

:facebook:

:instagram:

:soundcloud:

:spotify:

Kielichy - Punkty płonące (2026)

"Melancholia, Misanthropy, Melody", this is the whole description of the Polish project Kielichy ("Chalices"). But it's also everything it needs. The Wrocław-based band walks among alternative genres with grace, taking a lot from folk and post-punk, but ultimately creating something very, very theirs. But it's also a goodbye of some sorts.

The short EP makes the second longer entry in the band's discography after the self-titled EP from two years ago. This one feels like a continuation of the debut, but also a level up for me. Adrian Szczecina's deep voice automatically adds a lot of darkness (and darkwaveness) to the whole project that marries folk's lyrics-writing and sensibility with alternative guitar music. I must say that my favourite part of this music is the sound of the guitars here: the darkness just emanates from their low-pitched, calm but also unnerving presence. Black Heart Procession's vibes all over the place.

But also i is said that the band aims at changing their signature sound, moving away from the neofolk vibes towards... Yeah, who knows? The EP's last song, Morze Czarne ("The Black Sea") is a clear statement on this style shift. It doesn't reveal the destination, but verses like "We have to destroy some things finally/To create new places" tell a lot. I'm very curious here cause the artists clearly know how to draw inspiration from various genres to make something poignant and dark so I'm not worried. As they sing: "Let us sail. We'll find ourselves alone in the middle of the sea".

Punkty płonące costs 2.5 EUR (10 PLN).

Check: Morze Czarne

Country: Poland

Genre: darkwave neofolk

:bandcamp:

:facebook:

:instagram:

:youtube:

:spotify: