Julia Gjertsen & Juha Mäki-Patola - Dive (2023)

While known for collaborating in the past, for Julia Gjertsen and Juha Mäki-Patola, Dive makes the first longer (although not very long) album made together. The piano sounds from Norway and the electronic soundscapes from Finland make a stunning whole together.

The result of the collaboration can be described as beautiful "glimpse(s) of melancholic and emotive piano melodies mixed together with lush and ambient textures". Those are inspired by the beauty of the Scandinavian nature with the titles of the compositions referring to specific aspects they want to focus on. While the central part of this music certainly is the piano, its beauty is not all here. From my perspective, it works even better than it would in an empty space with the darker notes provided by the super subtle electronica, making the compositions include both the beauty and the sadness.

Dive costs 3.5 EUR (3 GBP).

Check: When the Birds Start to Leave

Country: Norway/Finland

Genre: piano neoclassical

Label: bigo & twigetti

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Sparkler - Big Sonic Chill (2023)

For Sparkler, Big Sonic Chill is only a debut album, but they feel as if they've played the very noisy kind of shoegaze for a long time. This makes the Californian's album one of the best within the genre so far this year.

I love how the guitars sound in those compositions. They are not only fittingly distorted, they are wild and untamed. There's no negotiating with their pure energy and I appreciate it a lot. While the soft and genre-appropriate vocals balance their madness, there's no hiding it: the compositions here are, more often than not, ruled by the guitars' wildness. And it feels so good. Especially that they do sound like taken from the biggest icons of the genre, My Bloody Valentine (especially the ones in Around that could feature on Loveless and nobody would bat an eye). This means also that there's virtually no time for the listeners to have a pause: the pace is constantly as high as it can get (except for the title song that closes the debut album) and it makes the blood going, that's for sure. That said, the energy that the music transfers can't hide the fact that this is absolutely melancholic music. The melancholia drown in the high speed of life if you want.

Big Sonic Chill costs 7 USD.

Check: Around

Country: California, US

Genre: noisy shoegaze

Label: Flesh & Bone Records

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VAUTOURS - Live Forever (2023)

VAUTOURS, or an "angry 4-piece act of Noisy Rockin' (Post)-Hardcore / Punk shit", are from northern France and their music leaves a phenomenal impression and a heavy burden on the listeners. It's certainly the case with the last instance of their EP trilogy called Live Forever.

After Hail and The Queen, the band comes back once again with their extremely harsh and heavy, but also undeniably smooth and flow-rich post-metal music. Especially the opening track makes my neck thrill with excitement: there's not much of vocals yet and the whole of the compositions feels like a bullet of overwhelming noise. I love it. Afterwards the shift is slightly changed, thanks to the unique vocals that feel equally as post-hardcore as they resemble the over the top dark cabaret type of expression. I can feel some of Serj Tankian or Gogol Bordello here: these teatrical, exagerated punk vocals that are perhaps the most expressive way of singing there is.

One more important thing: their cover art game is top-notch!

Live Forever costs 3 EUR.

Check: Live Forever

Country: France

Genre: punk post-hardcore

Label: Marci Satan !

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Bianca Scout - The Heart of the Anchoress (2023)

The London-based Bianca Scout has been making music for almost a decade now. This year she showed her new album called The Heart of the Anchoress and it makes perfect nutrition for the art-oriented parts of our souls.

Her music is certainly a kind of ambient pop, but unlike artists like Midwife, it is not based on grainy noise, but highly experimental electronica. Bianca Scout admits that her compositions have to be utterly transformed (twisted, teased, pruned and nurtured) from the way they look at the beginning to their final forms. The angelic voice of the artist is accompanied here by a variety of electronic sounds, artful instrumental bits and oneiric backing vocals. Everything resembles a very detailed collage of elements that alone don't mean much, but together are truly beautiful. Except for the pipe organ-based ones, they'd look fabulous alone as well, no doubt about it. No wonder that her tracks are called "mantra-like songs succeed in opening portals to heavenly vistas, where scenes of golden-hour/after-hour intimacy softly unfold".

The Heart of the Anchoress costs 8 EUR (7 GBP).

Check: Dedicated Two

Country: UK

Genre: art ambient pop

Label: First Terrace Records

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Arima - Beldurrez beste egitean (2023)

The Basque Arima are back with their third ever EP. The artists play their take on noisier indie rock with psychedelic influences and, as it's their signature quality so far, Beldurrez beste egitean is really good.

The artists admit that the album marks the end of some phase of their career as a band. The music here feels like "leaving the darkness of the sea, to feel the sun's rays on the skin" with the shift in their perspective that is characterized by the compositions with less of the noisy bang around them and with more focus on the songs themselves. As a result, we can experience four slower, more ballad-like tracks with a lot of weight put on Paule Bilbao's very rock-like vocals. They draw a lot from the noisy genres, building a good, solid base on the noisy guitars with beautiful oneiric moments, but it seems to me that there's more indie rock here that can gradually evolve into very post-rock-like instrumental blizzard (as in Kea eta larruak) kind of orientation. 

I like how short and economical in a sense the lyrics are. They are poignant and straightforward, leaving at the same time a lot for the listener to add from themselves with the best example being Oroigarri bat where Bilbao basically sings how bad she feels without this special someone. 

Beldurrez beste egitean costs 7 EUR.

ARIMA - Metamorphosis (2019)

Check: Kea eta larruak

Country: Basque Country/Spain

Genre: noise rock

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Relay Tapes - Debris (2023)

Jade Tyers of Brisbane, Australia makes his music under the moniker of Relay Tapes. On Debris, their third ever EP, Tyers shows an impressive take on the noisier and heavier kind of noise pop.

Although it is a solo project, it's definitely hard to guess volume-wise. Tyer's music can be downright loud and noisy when it is necessary. The guitar sounds have this nice, crunchy texture that can feel really overwhelming at times, but they give way for the calm, dreamy vocals most of the time. There's a good dose of acoustic guitar here as well, especially when the songs gradually turn more into moody ballads and even industrial/ambient soundscapes (in Debris). 

Debris costs 2 EUR (3 AUD).

Check: Street Scene

Country: Australia

Genre: solo noise rock

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Flyying Colours - You Never Know (2023)

The Melbourne-based band of Flyying Colours seem to have their reliable way of creating very catchy and engaging noisy music. They proved it once again on their third album ever called You Never Know. 

This is this kind of noise music that certainly is very melodic but this feature is often lost, on purpose, in the sea of lo-fi guitar noise. It's rather slow and aims more likely to the audience's heart than to their legs and other dancing parts of a body. The guitars are toned down, although, if you focus well enough, they give out how powerful they could become. But that's not the point: the guitar noise accompanies the sweet melodies and even sweeter vocals that lead the way through the catchy compositions. In general, the Australians' dreamy music ranges from very twee-like songs to a bit rougher, but still very melodic pieces.

You Never Know costs 12 EUR (10 GBP).

Check: Never Forget

Country: Australia

Genre: lo-fi noisy indie pop

Label: Club AC30/Poison City

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Uniforms - Trance (2023)

Three years after their last album called Fantasía moral, the Spanish noise pop outfit Uniforms are back with their third ever LP. And Trance really induces this kind of melodic and noisy, but also a bit post-punk in some aspects, entertaining trance.

Those post-punk influences are mostly audible in the distinct bass lines and vocals that, form time to time, sound like taken from some female-led punk band - there's no screaming but some of the almost spoken word vocals certainly feel like it. However, this all is swamped with noisy guitars and dense, but energetic and melodic, music. That said, the Spanish can as easily go into different direction with indie pop ballads like Dusky, where the main focus is put on the vocals themselves. But the guitar compositions are definitely more numerous here. I appreciate how the band can create melodic songs but still accent the might of the guitar-fueled noise. Or transform their style into an adrenaline-filled run with a perfect flow in I Quit. 

Trance costs 7 EUR.

Uniforms - Fantasía moral (2020)

UNIFORMS - EQUALS (2018)

Check: I Quit

Country: Spain

Genre: post-punkish noise pop

Label: Oso Polita

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Nac/Hut Report - Absent (2023)

With already their 7th album, the Kraków-based Nac/Hut Report continue to develop their very unique style that marries dream pop-atmosphere with experimental ambient electronica. Absent makes yet another extremely interesting album in the offstream landscape of Poland.

Brigitte Roussel is the singing part of the duo and her voice is utterly oneiric and atmospheric. It always sound like something that appears on the verge of a dream, difficult to decipher but enriching the mesmerizing ambiance of the compositions. Anyone who attended any of their shows knows how focused Roussel and Li/ese/Li are while working on their experimental ambient music. This music manages to be melodic and catchy while undoubtedly representing the very experimental part of the electronic music that directly borders with drone and noise genres. 

The artists sprinkle this outstanding mode of operation with a captivating idea on this particular album on which "All music has been extracted from shortwave radio interval signals from different international broadcasters" named in the track titles (from Korea and Uzbekistan to Poland and Slovakia). This alone makes it even more mysterious and difficult to pass on.

Absent costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: 702 KHz, Radio Stockholm

Country: Poland

Genre: experimental ambient pop

Label: Crunchy Human Children Records

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Ole-Bjørn Talstad - Ferd (2023)

The Norwegian pianist and composer Ole-Bjørn Talstad released his debut album via Moderna Records last month. Ferd is filled with delicate piano compositions that make your mind roam freely for those 20 minutes.

The album's title refers to the journey through life that every human being has to attempt. With his piano compositions, the artist expresses the more hopeful and optimistic view on this journey (quite unlike what I would consider the average take in Scandinavian music), with his notes saying that "we've all suffered some hardship, but together we can lift each other up and move on to better days". And so the music here is far from being melancholic: the compositions are calm but also lively and quite high-paced. I appreciate that, but being a sad guy myself, I still like the most melancholic ones on the short album.

Ferd costs 5.5 EUR (8 CAD).

Check: Moltys

Country: Norway

Genre: piano neoclassical

Label: Moderna Records

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AtonalitA - Collaboration of Souls (2023)

I know Siamak Ghorbanian Aghdam, from his previous album as AtonalitA, as a solo artist who combines post-rock music with the sounds of violin. However, it seems that he doesn't want to work only on his own as his new album, fittingly called Collaboration of Souls, offers a broad variety of unique collabs.

The thing that immediately draws attention is certainly the list of guest musicians. It includes tones of either solo post-rockers (the abyss inside us, The Glass Pavilion) or lesser known bands (like my compatriots from YENISEI). This is a prime selection from the underground post-rock world (literally from all around the globe). As on his solo works, violin is what drives the compositions enriching them with this hard-to-miss nostalgic and beautiful atmosphere. They are accompanied by mostly acoustic and not-that-overwhelming post-rock music, but this means that the violin is only better audible. 

Collaboration of Souls costs 3 USD.

Check: Lost in Memories

Country: Iran

Genre: violin-led post-rock

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Throw Down Bones - Three (2023)

The newest album from the Fuzz Club Records powerhouse is provided by the Italian Piemonte's artist from Throw Down Bones. For the trio, it is the third album in discography and they fittingly called it Three. With no doubt, it is filled with a super interesting take on instrumental music.

Although the music here is certainly based on guitars and it's mostly instrumental, I can't say it sounds like your typical post-rock music. First of all, the synthy electronica has a lot to say here: I love how the gut-reaching electronic noise dominates Optichrome and how well the smaller but viable distortion compliment the guitar compositions. This crazy post-industrial vibe rules the whole album. It makes the music go insanely fast (the pace on Loma!), hits like a bullet and make the unique and strong impression on the listeners.

Three costs 8 EUR (7 GBP).

Check: Loma

Country: Italy

Genre: post-industrial post-rock

Label: Fuzz Club Records

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Last Tourist - Last Tourist (2023)

Although they are around for six years already, this year's self-titled album is the debut for the Leeds-based nugaze outfit Last Tourist. They mix the most interesting things about shoegaze and post-punk music to create a really interesting take on the dreamy kind of music.

The band's inspirations include DIIV and The Jesus and Mary Chain, but also Joy Division or Interpol. That's why the artists aim to create more melodic, danceable version of dreamy music. You can hear that the vocals could as well be a part of some post-punk, tougher and grittier compositions, but they are treated with this oneiric kind of haze effects to fit the nugaze aesthetics. I like that things like that are noticeable in the dense atmosphere - and the atmosphere is certainly a thing the band is very capable of creating. It is thick, it is heavy and it's very, very dreamy. That's how we like it. 

Last Tourist state that they want to combine the lively world of the nowadays post-punk and the atmospheric shoegaze music. They go into one of those more in some of the compositions (like in the very melodic Black Raven) but they are capable of create a beautiful, hazy soundscape in other (as in Falling Into (Drone)). Very versatile artists.

 

Last Tourist costs 6 EUR (5 GBP).

Check: Spiritual Cove

Country: UK

Genre: melodic nugaze

Label: 1991Recordings

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Lost in Reverb - (H)ours (2023)

Nicolás Madrid from the Argentinian city of Marcos Paz is a drone artist whose music creates some beautiful, although harsh soundscapes. Ones that I'd imagine would fit perfectly the southern end of the artist's home country. His new EP is called (H)ours.

The music here is a nice combination of space, dark ambient with uncomfortable presence of drone music. Some of the cosmic peace, represented by the cover art's picture of the Moon, is also audible here. Especially in the hopefully titled second track on the album. And the more beautiful face of this music is shown when the piano keys are introduced in The Hours in Mare Imbrium, my favourite track here.

(H)ours costs 3 USD.

Check: The Hours in Mare Imbrium

Country: Argentina

Genre: droney space ambient

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BIG|BRAVE - nature morte (2023)

The Canadian trio of BIG|BRAVE is certainly already the icon of this kind of slow but extremely expressive kind of post-metal music. Their new album, nature morte, may be around their peak performance that should touch to the sole anyone listening.

According to the Bandcamp account, the music here is composed of "distorted and textural drones, austere bombast, and Wattie’s heart-rending voice". The abrupt, bullet shot-like bursts of noise with the relative silence between them, make one of the most unnerving kind of music ever. Especially that there's no half measures here: it's either extremely loud and heavy or worryingly idle. But this is nothing compared to Robin Wattie's vocals that are THE most emotional and desperate-sounding ones out there. The amount of feeling they express and project on the listeners is fathomless. The vocals and the music combined create one of the most poignant stories in the modern music, probably on par with Lingua Ignota's depressive poetry. 

nature morte costs 10 USD.

Check: carvers, farriers and knaves

Country: Canada

Genre: drone metal

Label: Thrill Jockey Records.

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DDENT - Ex Auditu (2023)

Three years after their last full-length album, the French post-rockers Louis Lambert of DDENT is back. This time, it's only a short EP, but it's always a treat to listen to their well-written instrumental music.

The EP called Ex Auditu, according to its Spotify title at least, may only be the first part of some longer whole and it's something to keep in mind. In those three tracks, Lambert included a whole lot of dense and heavy post-rock atmosphere that is mainly created by the loud, but not too loud, guitar sounds. It pairs well with the overall slow pace that makes the whole thing feel more monumental and overwhelming. And this atmosphere leads the compositions from softer, calmer fragments towards very heavy ones, including the very metal-like last seconds of Vale. I can't wait for more of this music, potentially Ex Auditu part 2?

Ex Auditu costs 0.50 EUR.

 

DDENT - Couvre-sang (2020)

DDENT - TORO (2018)

Check: Vale

Country: France

Genre: atmospheric post-rock

Label: Chien Noir Production

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Natt - Natt (2023)

Four artists with long musical CVs (including René Misje from the band called Krakow, which is especially interesting for me, a person living in this city) from Bergen joined forces to create an interesting post-rock music album filled with great synthy flow.

This flow is what makes it quite special. The Norwegians decided to build the album out of three, long compositions and the synth sounds are what keeps them together and make it so ridiculously catchy for the listener. The compositions, although guitar-rich and heavy, feel like instrumental bangers the audience can swallow with one bite. Even though the last, 20-minutes-long track develops very slowly, the smooth post-rock it eventually produces is super satisfying. This flow plays perfectly with the rather slow pace of the guitar music, making the whole experience feel like loud honey poured into your ears.

Also, it's wort pointing out that the cover art is one of its kind: a beautiful painting that looks like a dark collage and it's something I dig for sure.

Natt costs 7 EUR.

 

Check: Skillevei

Country: Norway

Genre: synth post-rock

Label: Edged Circle Productions

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Radio Supernova - Paratiisi (2023)

The prime example of European psychedelic shoegaze music comes from the city of Tampere in Finland. Radio Supernova are back to the blog with their third album called Paratiisi and, as it's been two times already,  it could hardly be more exciting and mesmerizing a trip.

The cult-like vibes are strong on this one: from the fittingly psychedelic band's photo, the cover art to the album's title that translates to "Paradise". And this whole entourage is a perfect wrapping for the band's music. While it's loud and the guitars easily create this shoegaze-like noisy atmosphere, it's more about embracing the psychedelic rock formula and taking it to the new levels. I love how Kata Riikonen's vocals are exactly between the ethereal kind of dreamy music and the juicy psychedelia: they are both energetic and oneiric which is certainly not an easy thing to achieve. Not to mention that the Finnish language sounds perfect here: it's moody exotic vibes fit right into the obscurity of the artists' music.

And the music itself is as colourful as the cover art is. That's the exact opposition to minimalist music: a lot is going on every second, even in those rare ballad-like fragments, it's hard to focus on one element of the music at once. Which is literally perfect for an album the track titles of which translate to things like "Eternal Midsummer" and "At the neon party".

Paratiisi costs 7 EUR.

Radio Supernova - Takaisin (2021)

Radio Supernova - Tähtiin (2019)

Check: Läpi yön

Country: Finland

Genre: shoegazey psychedelic rock

Label: Soit Se Silti

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Lowly - Keep Up the Good Work (2023)

In 2019 they shook my musical world withe their near-perfect album Hifalutin. This winter, the Danish band of Lowly finally released their next, third one already, album called Keep Up the Good Work. And they did exactly what they mentioned in the title.

They call themselves "restlessly inventive, exquisitely melodic, and defying easy categorisation" and there's no exaggeration in those words. They create indie pop that borders with everything possible. There's a lot of ambitious electronica and synthpop here, that's for sure. There's some dreampop and noise pop elements (although I feel like less than before, instead, there's more tropical, twee vibes). There's a very broad approach to vocals as they very often function as background sounds for the whole compositions. But the main thing is how easily the Danish create absolute bangers that are catchy and melodic to the extreme. On the last album, it was Children and In the Hearts, now it's Seasons and Keep Up the Good Work.

This kind of experimental in nature but also extremely catchy music with positive vibes makes me think of their latest work as a calmer, more artsy version of what Plastic Mermaids delivered us last year. Both albums being something very special.

Keep Up the Good Work costs 8 EUR (7 GBP).

Lowly - Hifalutin (2019)

Check: Seasons

Country: Denmark

Genre: experimental synthpop

Label: Bella Union

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Ropes Inside a Hole - A Man and His Nature (2023)

Ropes Inside a Hole (or RIAH as they were previously known) started their career five years ago with a debut album called  Autumnalia. Now, after some important changes in their lineup, they are bound to continue with the sophomore release called A Man and His Nature and it's one to keep your ear on, that's for sure.

They say that the period of the pandemics' slowness and separation gave them better conditions to focus on the music. Another new thing that the album brings, is the number of guest musicians that were invited to collaborate with the band, even from some far away places. This includes classical instruments artists (with cello, violin and saxophone), synth sounds and vocals provided by Daniel Loefgren of Suffocate For Fuck Sake. The results are pretty impressive. The lively, energetic post-rock is combined here with slower, moodier pieces with vocals (as in Distance) and the saxophone sounds (Feet in the Swamp, Gaze to the Sky). This combination works like charm and makes it very difficult not to feel entertained throughout the album's playlist. And for me, it makes it possible to call this music an ambitious art post-rock that wants to expand beyond the guitar-defined borders of the genre.

A Man and His Nature costs 7 EUR.

Check: Loss and Grief

Country: Italy

Genre: art post-rock

Label: Voice of the Unheard/Shove Records

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WuW - L'Orchaostre (2023)

Inspired by "classical music, free jazz and drone", WuW is a French duo made up of two brothers Colins who together create an exceptionally interesting take on heavy post-rock/post-metal music. The new instance of their work is their third album called L'orchestre.

This is an orchestra that is based on heavy and crunchy sounds of guitars. The list of the band's inspirations include Year of No Light, Dirge and Omega Massif and it's no surprise as this slow at first, but gradually faster and faster music is headed towards very guitar-oriented self-expression. It's tad heavier than post-rock and way more similar to stoner metal than rock music, but it lacks any kind of post-metal vocals so I'd put it on the very border of the genres. No matter the genre, this is this kind of music that is meant to overwhelm the audience with the sheer weight of the sound: the slower, stoner riffs and the pretty minimalist vibes of this music can be felt in every inch of your body.

L'Orchaostre costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: Orchaostre 5

Country: France

Genre: guitar post-metal

Label: Pelagic Records

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Meena - Newspapers (2023)

This is the third EP that the Manchester-based band have released so far. The artists put a disclaimer on their Bandcamp website saying "play as loud as possible" and it's very fitting as Newspapers is a good example of nugaze music, one the excitement for which rises proportionally to the sound volume. 

The music on the EP feels very fresh. It's partially due to those little electronic tweeks here and there and hip-hop-like drums; it's not quite Holy Fawn's level, but it's in this direction. It's especially well-audible in Paving, where the hip-hop and electronica elements are the core on which the nugazey song is built upon. On the other hand, the compositions feel interestingly unique, you can't really guess what's coming next, the room for surprise is extremely big here. It's quite a shame that the tracks are so short, they could be going on and on without losing anything from their great flow I feel. Apart from the smooth backgrounds, it's also thanks to the vocals that range from the delicate dream pop murmurs to quite post-punk-like, tougher ones from time to time. And it's a real pleasure when they drown in the final song's noisy finish.

Newspapers costs 6 EUR (4.99 GBP).

Check: Paving

Country: UK

Genre: nugaze

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