Bloed - Tranen (2025)

So I have this little tradition that before every edition of Dunk!Festival, I listen to the whole discographies of all of the announced bands. I listen to the artists I know to start celebrating this fantastic event and to the artists I don't know to assess if I want to see them live or choose eating something instead. And it's a great thing I do that as this made me discover Bloed, the Belgian band that combines everything I like in aggressive metal sounds.

A sister and two brothers make up the line up of this fresh outfit for whom this is the long distance debut. And saying they play metal is an extreme understatement. It's more like aggressive electronic music (sometimes makes me think of Crystal Castles) with aggressive vocals (the metal part here) and great bass lines-drums framework. Last year I was amazed how much I loved Igorrr's single track called Headbutt where truly impressive metal anger was combined with whatever Igorrr does to maintain their image of true weirdoes. So, in short, Bloed's music sounds like Headbutt without the weird. Electronica very rarely compliments the metal vocals so well so I give kudos to the rookies from the depth of my heart.

I believe Bloed's walls of noise will make many of Dunk!'s regulars blush while the exciting, modern compositions filled with ever-changing pace and surprising bursts of noise will force the audience to reach their limits in front of the stage. I, personally, can't wait.

Tranen costs 9 EUR.

Check: Druk

Country: Belgium

Genre: electronica-based modern metal

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Sunset Images - Oscilador (2026)

Back in 2018 I attended one of the best discontinued festivals in Poland. And that edition of SpaceFest was brilliant, it featured SPOIWO (one of two best post-rock bands in here, together with Ciśnienie, as we know), Medicine Boy and this unlikely hero: a psychedelic band from Mexico. And as most of SpaceFest artists, it took the whole audience far from Earth. Now, Samuel Osorio and the team come back with their third release and it's filled with the same vibes I remember.

In many places I can notice that Sunset Images is tagged as shoegaze project. While there certainly are some clear inspiration drawn from the genre, to me it's really the psychedelic rock that makes it so special about the Mexicans. Yes, there are fuzzy, ethereal vocals that add the airiness to the whole stuff, but they are accompanied by the roughest-sounding, desert-like guitars ever with a little trace of electronica. It is an invitation to the trance induced by the guitar noise that takes us to the hot and sun-kissed desolations of Central America so everyone can appreciate the psychedelic sunsets on their own.

The album, mixed by Alberto González (of Lorelle Meets the Obsolete) and mastered by Oliver Ackermann (A Place to Bury Strangers), revolves (!) around the way our world revolves all the time. "Our world is cyclical; everything repeats itself: our history, our customs, our trends, our way of communicating", the band says and, furthermore, they illustrate it with their repetition-rich music that goes on and on, bringing the audience a message of criticism of everything wrong about the reality around (!) us. 

Oscilador costs 8 EUR (150 MXN).

Check: El tiempo oscila y muere al inicio (Tommy)

Country: Mexico

Genre: shoegazey psychedelic rock

Label: Dedstrange

Sunset Images - Traumatismo Nacional (2021)

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Tristan Perich & James McVinnie - Infinity Gradient (2025)

I dig pipe organ sound in anything. Give me Anna von Hausswolff's early releases anytime of day. But when I heard about this album where this instrument meets post-minimalism and "1-bit music", I had no idea what to expect.

Tristan Perich is well-known for his minimalist electronica (not by me cause that is, simply speaking, not my kind of music), James McVinnie is an acclaimed organist from NY and together they've created something they call "an hour-long symphony in seven movements for organ and 100 speakers in 1-bit audio". It sounds extremely impressive, probably more from the realm of modern art than music, but it doesn't matter to me much. What matters is that the album itself is so satisfying to listen to. Probably because all I hear is the organs i various compositions I have no ability to describe as I lack music knowledge. What I know is that the hour passed so quickly when I was submerged in the massive sound of the king of the instruments.

Infinity Gradient costs 9 EUR (8 GBP).

Check: Infinity Gradient: Section 7

Country: New York, US

Genre: organ-based orchestral neoclassical

Label: Erased Tapes Records

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Theory of Ghosts - The Sulphur and the Grey (2026)

For many reasons, Closure by Piano Magic was an album as important as it was devastating to listen to for me. It also crowned the band's discography in near perfect way, but still meant that there was a musical presence I would sorely miss. Fortunately, on Piano Magic's ashes, Theory of Ghosts rose and it shares a lot of common things with its predecessor. And the artists behind it have just released their debut album!

Theory of Ghosts is Glen Johnson and Franck Alba (of Piano Magic) who, together with Robert Hervais-Adelman, create something I would call minimal ghost rock. All the PM fans out there will quickly recognize the vocals (obviously) but also the lyrical flavour that, to me, a person from Central Europe, is so strikingly British. I love it and I love when they sing about UK and London (places I've never been to, let alone have any relationship with) but also about more universal aspects of life. "When nobody knows who you are, you can do whatever you want" being probably the sentence I will take with me from this one.

Music-wise, it's a minimal (but still very artistic) electronica that has a hint of this autumnal sadness I associate these vocals with. Especially when it's joined by subtle guitar sounds and strings. Sometimes the electronic part is even more... beepy. I know it's not a word, but listening to Blame makes me think of this word. Theory of Ghosts is a great name as it's like listening to a ghost of something that used to be, but also to something that is completely new in form. 

The Sulphur and the Grey costs 9 EUR (7.99 GBP).

Check: When Nobody Knows Who You Are

Country: UK

Genre: minimal ghost rock

Label: Second Language Music

Theory of Ghosts - EP1 (2023)

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monotheism - Mantra (2025)

Three masked individuals from a far away country of South Korea bring another near-divine (and very short) album to my speakers. 7 years (!) after their last EP (also mentioned in here), they come back with this trance-inducing, spiritual and mind-blowingly noisy release that is entitled Mantra but also IS a mantra at the same time.

"We play the resonance of the divine. Three waves become one mantra", they state and they follow by explaining the role of each of the three tracks on the EP. The noisy guitar sounds first let us connect with the divine resonance, then find the origins of all sounds and finally get lost within the sound itself. The aggressive-sounding guitars are most certainly NOT what one would imagine when reading a description like this, but I can assure you that the flow is there and it can take anyone with it towards the sonic awakening.

Mantra costs 5 USD.

Check: Cycle

Country: South Korea

Genre: noisssssy post-rock

Monotheism - Reveal (2019)

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The Burning Paris - Last Leaves (2025)

When the American Post. Festival announced another batch of artists set to join this year's edition, one addition to the list caught my attention and reminded me that I used to listen to Coral City Ruin a lot when I was much younger. So I checked them (again) and I'm blown away and their 2025's third ever album is just exactly what I love in music.

They call it a combination of shoegaze, dream pop, neoclassical and post-rock, but I just call it "what if Piano Magic played post-rock today" and I can't think of a better compliment in my mind. I reckon it's the combination of the slowcore, extremely melancholic atmosphere, poetic lyrics and violins-heavy, but also very much multidimensional compositions that makes me think of the British band (R.I.P.). According to their own words, the music here "swells between serenity and intensity" and I have to say that the balance between the weight of the guitars and the beauty of piano and violin music (as well as the ethereal vocals) is perfectly struck.  

So it seems that during the hiatus of my attention in their music, the Americans managed to disband, get back together, albeit with substantial changes to the line-up, release their first album in years and now top it with a second release. And I'm more than glad to say that they keep doing what I remember from over 20 years ago.

Last Leaves costs 10 USD.

Check: August Fires

Country: Massachusetts, US

Genre: post-ghost rock

Label: A Thousand Arms Music

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Mary Lattimore & Julianna Barwick - Tragic Magic (2026)

What can you get when you have an acclaimed harpist (Mary Lattimore) and equally acclaimed ambient pop artist Julianna Barwick in one room (I assume (EDIT: it was a whole philharmonie!) )creating music? Well, exactly what you've expected: pure magic (even if tragic). The two American musicians created one of the highlights of the dawn of this year and filled it with the perfect soundscape.

While I know some projects with harp music (LEYA!), it is still pretty exotic to me. I've seen Lattimore performing live already and harp sounds and subtle electronica make an interesting blend, but I feel like only now, with the addition of ethereal vocals, it is complete. I can't get rid of the picture of tall tree-stacked forest while listening to this album (curse you, fantasy movies!) so it's no wonder this is exactly what the album's cover art features. But there is also a certain amount of ethereal mist and omnipresent melancholia in the air present.

Naturally (sic!), this brings up the hippie, New Age vibes o the picture as well. But, according to the album's description, it is mostly focused on the human nature and inter-human relations. And nature. And the cosmic. I guess you can't escape these. Nevertheless, the combination of ambient pop with the sound of harp is something I did not have on my bingo card for 2026 music, but I'm glad I found it.

Tragic Magic costs 10 EUR.

Check: Perpetual Adoration

Country: US

Genre: harp-based ambient pop

Label: InFiné

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