Łabandzi Śpiew: 2025

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

czwartek, 12 czerwca 2025

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

środa, 11 czerwca 2025

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

TESA - G H O S T ( 2015)

wtorek, 10 czerwca 2025

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

piątek, 6 czerwca 2025

Maria Somerville - Luster (2025)

Taking inspirations from everywhere, but mainly her home Ireland, Maria Somerville creates dream pop with many faces, but one soul: it stays intimate and close to the audience thanks to the slow pace and ethereal vocals. The artist's sophomore album is all about this close artist-listener proximity.

On this album, the artist's range goes from ambient pop to acoustic dream pop up to almost industrial-like tones. But generally the vibes revolve around the slowest, most intimate of genres. A beautiful voice, background hums and maybe an acoustic guitar is all the artist needs to enchant us. With Projections, she proofs that it doesn't mean that her songs are not catchy, but generally the melodies are less important than the airiness and softness of the sound. And softness is what I seek on albums like this.

Luster costs 12 EUR (9.99 GBP).

Check: Projections

Country: Ireland

Genre: intimate dream pop

Label: 4AD

:soundcloud:

czwartek, 5 czerwca 2025

Benefits - Constant Noise (2025)

The band who "write songs about things that concern [them]" and really, all of us, is back with a sophomore album. And I can safely say that they only get better with their fascinating and inspiring blend of poetry and synthetic music. Whatever you need to hear right now is probably already on Constant Noise.

I can't think of many artists who make music quite like Benefits. The spoken word poetry is, of course, the first thing that catches your attention. It is a lyrical take on post-punk social commentary focus, but there's more to it. I'm afraid not being a native speaker, a lot of it flies above me, but what I can catch, is striking enough. That's why those moments when lyrics about war and injustice is matched with disco-like electronica is especially shocking. But the music varies basically from track to track with harsh guitar noise and atmospheric drones as important as the electronic notes.

This combination of poetry and guitars makes me think of last year's album from Overhead, the Albatross, but maybe because since the recent dunk!festival, they are on my mind regularly. What also certainly deserves attention is the track recorded together with Peter Doherty of The Libertines which is a nice little thing that can brighten the day of an indie rock veteran like myself.

Constant Noise costs 9.5 EUR (7.99 GBP).

Check: Land of the Tyrants

Country: UK

Genre: eclectic lyrical post-punk

Label: Invada Records

środa, 4 czerwca 2025

Waves Crashing - Effection (2025)

The Cascadian shoegaze is not something I talk about every day, but maybe it'll change since Waves Crashing, a band from Washington state, released their debut album and it kind of rocks. If you need some tasty retro noisy vibes in your life, this is the address.

The retro vibes here are omnipresent. It is a noisy rock blessed by RIDE and The Jesus and Mary Chain: the melodic guitar music with a layer of fuzziness to make it even more beautiful. And the melodic aspect is dominant here, my favourite track, Comatose is a perfect example here. The way an unnerving and disturbing word is shaped into a fantastically catchy and airy chorus is done in a true classic shoegaze fashion. Just look at it: "Something out my window/I feel it close/Try to stay normal/In a comatose".

And what accompanies the lyrics is guitar music as fuzzy as one should expect. There are riffs that make it outstanding (like the finish in In My Head), but they are mostly just complimenting the airy vocals. Which is not a bad thing. I personally thing that the more atmospheric ballad-like the band gets towards the end of the release, the slightly less interesting the music. Slightly. Good thing that they finish with a remix of Comatose as this tells me they know they have a real hit in their portfolio.

Effection costs 9 USD.

Check: Comatose

Country: Washington, US

Genre: retro noise rock

Label: Neon Sigh / Audiomanic Music

Glazyhaze - Just Fade Away (2023)

wtorek, 3 czerwca 2025

Glazyhaze - SONIC (2025)

Two years after their debut album, the Italian, "gritty yet dreamy" shoegazers, for whom the noise and the melodies can easily coexist together, are back. The new album takes the audience for a brief, but wonderful trip into the hazy soundscapes of indie rock melodies and fuzzy guitars.

The band have supported or will soon support quite big players of the noisy pop-rock music (Slow Crush, The Raveonettes, Softcult) which is great. Nothing makes me as happy as seeing artists who deserve it being recognized. And the Italians surely do. They try to balance the noisy atmosphere of shoegaze with extremely melodic pop songs, perhaps slightly towards the latter. But it works, the results are as catchy as songs can be, especially in the first part of the album with What a Feeling and Nirvana really standing out.

The song that best represents the second half is Slap, a perfect example of a well-written chorus. The album is said to touch the notion of "emotional contrasts across its two distinct halves that reflect light and dark". Its visual representation is the cover art with a match about to die down, the moment right between the two opposites. You can kind of hear it in the music too, but I wouldn't say it's the first thing that catches attention of the listener. More than the ideological basis, one focuses on how perfectly catchy the songs are. Well done.

SONIC costs 10 EUR.

Check: Slap

Country: Italy

Genre: melodic shoegaze

piątek, 23 maja 2025

Hekla - Turnar (2025)

Hekla Magnúsdóttir shares her name with the tallest volcano on Iceland. There's no connection to her music, I just like these geographical-musical facts. The artist herself released her third album this year and frankly speaking, it's gotta be my favourite one of the two which is backed up by the fact that Hekla received a lot of attention recently.

Hekla is a theremin player. I wouldn't be able to hear that I think, the music on the album sounds like it could well be made out of samples and synthesizers, but there is something special about playing such an outstanding instrument. Does it always sound so... dark? Mysterious but mostly ominous? No wonder that her Bandcamp account advertises the album as a "paranormal plane of haunting dread". I can hear the elements of ethereality and cosmic psychedelia, but I feel mostly darkness pouring out of each of the compositions. But maybe it's just the state of my mind. Still, I feel the strength of this music lies in the fact that everyone will be affected in a slightly different way. The only common thing is how beautiful the album is.

Turnar costs 9 EUR (7 GBP).

Check: Í Ösku og Eldi

Country: Iceland

Genre: dark theremin ambient

Label: Phantom Limb

:soundcloud:

terraplana - olhar pra trás (2023)

czwartek, 22 maja 2025

terraplana - natural (2025)

The Brazilians from terraplana made it to my blog already two years ago with their debut album and they are back so soon. Their sophomore release called natural proves that making the melodic, noisy and very honest music for them is, well, natural.

This is the kind of shoegazey, noisey music that feels like fun indie rock reworked to be airier and noisier with a big addition of the DIY honesty to the compositions. It is led by the duality of vocals with the more cheerful female ones provided by Stephani Heuczuk and the gloomier male ones. Interestingly enough, the new album features also a collaboration with Boston-based Winter and I have to say that hear a whisper has to be my favourite track here, the whispery additions fit so well to the otherwise upbeat song. I'm very happy to hear that the gazey scene in Brazil is alive and kicking and terraplana is my favourite proof for that.

Natural costs 10 USD.

Check: hear a whisper

Country: Brazil

Genre: noisy indie rock

Label: Balaclava Records

Wombed - Still Nothing (2021)

środa, 21 maja 2025

Wombed - Developing Phobias (2025)

And so André Leo finally released the debut album under the moniker of Wombed. I remember his first EP being extremely slowcore and intimately quiet while the new album is more about showing emotions. In the end, this half of Medicine Boy ended up in similar musical regions as Lucy Kruger (and The Lost Boys) as they both explore the darker minimalist rock music and both do it very well.

Although Wombed is now a full line-up band, the album is ruled by the moments when Leo lets the emotions run freely be it in the form of his angrier voice (slightly angrier, let's be real) or surprisingly rough sounds of electric guitar. It's this kind of one man music that is very dependent on the vocals-guitar collaboration, although when you listen closely, some songs present more three-dimensional compositions. In any case, I still like the atmosphere very much: the slightly airy and very intimate music that, I'm sure, is especially good when played live for a smaller audience.

And yes, as it's been the case pretty much always, Lucy Kruger helped with providing backing vocals. It's good to see former band members helping each other with post-split-up careers.

Developing Phobias costs 6 EUR.

Check: Cloud Hum

Country: RSA/Germany

Genre: dark art rock

wtorek, 20 maja 2025

The Infinity Ring - Ataraxia (2025)

"New England’s best kept secret", The Infinity Ring released their sophomore album and I have to say that there is tons to unveil here. This collective atmospheric but also very artsy and very dark rock music is meant to enchant everyone who tastes it. One can only appreciate the range of feelings the album triggers: from the intimate melancholia up to the euphoria of the loud crescendos.

The first thing you notice when listening to the Americans' music is how deep Cameron Moretti's vocal is. It's almost Leonard Cohen-esque so you can imagine the structure of the voice you can practically feel on your skin. The second thing would be how beautifully complex their compositions are. Always starting from the point of calm darkness and sometimes maintaining this atmosphere til the very end, sometimes bursting into loud and noisy, orchestral-like giant made of notes, out of which each is equally important. I, being a post-rock fan, prefer slightly the latter with the absolute masterpiece entitled Elysium in the first place.

And since the loudness and the calmness here are both fueled by violin sounds, you can be sure that the atmosphere on the album is the most important thing. Being an enormous challenge to make, the album itself is a monument to "the exploration, the emotional toll and ultimately the ecstasy of creation" while the band is praised not only for not breaking under the pressure of the process but also for live performances. I hope to be able to experience the latter on my own one day.

Ataraxia costs 7 EUR (11 CAD).

Check: Elysium

Country: Massachusetts, US

Genre: dark&artsy post-rock

Label: Profound Lore

piątek, 16 maja 2025

BRUIT ≤ - The Age of Ephemerality (2025)

As I have stated a couple of times, I respect bands who decide not to use Spotify and this kind of streaming platforms while it still makes me sad. Because I can't freely access their music (even if I buy digital files from Bandcamp) and because the world of music industry is what it is. Nevertheless, there are bands like BRUIT ≤ whose music HAS TO BE listened to, even if it's not that easy. And the French band confirms that with their spectacular second album.

This is the most complicated post-rock music ever. In the sense that it is made with guitars, orchestral instruments as well as the electronic manipulations. I can't think on any other band who goes to so many places to make their music and make it sound so coherent at the same time. There are almost math rock parts on the new album and they sound like weird collages made of drones and social media, but they are mostly used as intros and backgrounds. The music is made with instruments and later heavily packaged into the modern, glitchy post-rock form which makes it double as attractive in my ears.

This correspondents with the band's world view that is really this kind of technocratic punk, rebelling against the oppressions of the modern world, politics, society. Everything that hurts us even if we don't recognize it. This album is for everyone who would want to start recognize them and follow the band in chanting "We hope to be among the damned who refuse to have faith in their masters and who do everything to escape the cameras in the streets".

The Age of Ephemerality costs 8 EUR.

Check: Progress / Regress

Country: France

Genre: modern punk post-rock

Label: Pelagic Records

:facebook:

czwartek, 15 maja 2025

Kwoon - ODYSSEY (2025)

Oh, wow, a comeback that I did not expected nor have heard about! But what a beautiful surprise it is! I remember the project led by Sandy Lavallart's fantastic music from 10 years ago (the single called Swan) and 15 years ago (their last album release). This year they are back with a long and instantly memorable (and fittingly named) ODYSSEY.

This kind of post music that doesn't really match the common definition of post-rock, is not folky enough to call it post-folk, much rather sits somewhere there sounding beautiful. It is what Her Name Is Calla did and what Piano Magic were so good at, it is what slowcore and post-rock with a lot of artistic soul can sound like, it is one of the most intimately meaningful kinds of music out there. The artsy slowrock of the French band is stunning. Sometimes it is slow and quiet, sometimes it gets louder with the help of the vast range of classic instruments to create orchestral moments of euphoria (like in my favourite track Jayne) fueled with choire-like backing vocals (so beautiful in Life).

But the vocals are equally important, creating the folk-like focus on narration and words. The soft vocals sound emotional and very close to the audience, sometimes contrasting with the orchestral grandeur of the music. Every composition is complex and artistically engaging yet still very welcoming for any newcomer who happens to discover this band. And if they do, they are very lucky.

ODYSSEY costs 9 EUR.

Check: Jayne

Country: France

Genre: artsy slowrock

środa, 14 maja 2025

Glare - Sunset Funeral (2025)

A good dreamy debut album alert. Glare, a band from Texas with fuzzy guitars and soothing vocals is here to make you stare. At their music. Somehow. Anyway, the music is great: it's airy and noisy and melodic, just how you like 'em.

I'm shocked with how accurate and sly the description of their album is asking about what people envision when listening to the airy guitar music and answering: "Vistas big enough to be forgotten in. Deserts which stretch back to the beginning of time. Infinite horizons melting into pink bokehs. It’s Texas, isn’t it?". I thought it was northern Sweden, but they may be right! Never been to Texas. But this music is not only about geographical comparisons, it is all about emotions. Like you do when you write dreamy music. The band states that it is aimed "for people who don’t know how to talk about how they feel."

I can feel it in every track at the album, especially in the ethereal vocals contrasting with the rougher music. I especially like the songs that have tons of atmosphere, but there are the summits of very noisy guitar sounds towering over it form time to time, which is especially noticable in 2 Soon 2 Tell and its finish. If metal screaming was played on guitars, it could sound like this part. A very promising debut from the Americans.

Sunset Funeral costs 8 USD.

Check: 2 Soon 2 Tell

Country: Texas, US

Genre: noise dream pop

Label: Deathwish Inc./Sunday Drive

wtorek, 13 maja 2025

In Inertia - To Whom It May Concern (2025)

This February, an Indonesian music project In Inertia released their debut album filled with "music that is light on lyrics but rich in instrumental storytelling", situated somewehere on the border of various genres. But all of them are airy and soothing.

The Fitrah Akbar and Annissa Utami duo's work is an ode to reflective music that may or may not be called post-rock or instrumental ambient. The base is the guitar sounds, but, and this is strongly underlined in the band's description, unlike the absolute majority of post-rock music, it is far from being overwhelming or powerful. Or even loud. And unlike all those minority examples of calmer instrumental music I know, it is built on hope and light more than on the melancholia and darkness. It works like a warm bath, like a soothing oil. Every note can light your soul.

Talking about light, as the artists mention, their music is light on lyrics. But when the lyrics and vocals come, the ethereal post-rock momentarily transforms into memorable dream pop, which tells a lot about how airy and calm the music is. And the best example of that must be In Motion, song that is so warm that it can melt anyone's heart. But it's not always about "normal" vocals. The backing, angelic vocals are almost everywhere on the album, creating a misty soundscape that, if I had to compare to something, makes me think of Lights & Motion and his synthy post-rock.

To Whom It May Concern costs 10 USD.

Check: In Motion

Country: Indonesia

Genre: instrumental ambient

Label: Angular//Momentum

piątek, 9 maja 2025

Kallsup - En sista räddning (2025)

Debuting shoegazey band from the VÅRØ label? I'm interested! And once again, the Swedish label delivers an extremely interesting group with music that marries energetic indie rock with outstanding noisy and dreamy elements, making me think of bands like Pia Fraus for example.

In this music, the dreamy vocals are usually put on the pedestal, leading the indie pop songs with catchy melodies and light atmosphere. But it's not always the case. I especially love it when the Swedes' melodic pop drowns in noisy parts. This is especially well noticeable in the opening track that makes a beautiful composition with a fantastic finish. For me, the more drowning in the dense, sticky noise, the better. And I have to say, the band is really good in creating a good quality noise.

But the real goat here is Forever, the song that brings everything to the table: the moody melody, the airy atmosphere and the insanely catchy chorus.

En sista räddning costs 7 EUR.

Check: Forever

Country: Sweden

Genre: noisy dream pop

Label: VÅRØ

czwartek, 8 maja 2025

Pictures From Nadira - Bright Lights and Tired Streets (2025)

Another band that get better and better with every release is the German Pictures From Nadira. Their third album comes as "a sonic world full of melancholy, vastness, and fleeting memories" translated into guitar-oriented post-rock that balances the melodic and the dark faces of the genre.

The band describes their music as "massive walls of sound and fragile melodies allow the listener to partake in the tearing down of soulful silence in chaos and utopia." This album is more dark and massive than melodic and funky. Which I appreciate. As the title suggests, it feels like a night landscape of a city that is covered in heavy silence, but the lights are still on and life can be felt existing somewhere close. The homogeneous heaviness of the guitar sound is very close to the best post-rock examples of the overwhelming music.

The flow of the album is near perfect. The torrents of sound feel like dark waters of a big river (from the title of the closing track, I presume it's Danube) flowing around you to an unknown destination and you don't even know when they catch you in a way that cannot be fought against.

Bright Lights and Tired Streets costs 7 EUR.

Check: Absence

Country: Germany

Genre: dark post-rock

środa, 7 maja 2025

bdrmm - Microtonic (2025)

Despite their name, it's not another lo-fi bedroom pop project from States. Instead, the British band offer a fine quality of music that is both airy and... very much energetic. The light melodies and up-beat compositions ask anyone to dance on the artists' third album to date.

And, I have to say, this is their best one yet. Actually, when I think about it, the dreamy part of the music is slightly withdrawn. The album goes on like a good example of indietronica that is not crazy about creating the airy atmosphere but does it anyway. Sort of a side effect of the synths and samples' rich quantities. It is best audible when the band goes dark pop with spoken word vocals and the melodies woven of synths and pure, captivating flow. Yes, I'm talking about Snares. (And In the Electric Field with a guest appearance by Manchester-based artist Olivia Rees).

It's interesting how dark the album sounds while it is made of dance'able electronic sounds mostly. I love the feeling of euphoric cosiness it provides. Like one part of me wants to dance while the other just drowns in the see of sounds.

Microtonic costs 11 EUR (9 GBP).

Check: Snares

Country: UK

Genre: dreamy indietronica

Label: Rock Action Records

wtorek, 6 maja 2025

Cloakroom - Last Leg of the Human Table (2025)

Smooth vocals meeting harsh, grunge-like guitars, this is Cloakroom, a band "hailing from the harsh realms of Northwest Indiana" to show us their new, fourth in general, album called Last Leg of the Human Table.

This is the kind of music that if it wasn't for the airy vocals, would certainly be classified in another genre than I do it. And I think of it as dream pop that went mad and started a noisy brawl in a guitar shop. The guitars sounds in various combinations: sometimes more melodic, sometimes more nerve-wrecking, are the main line of attack on the audience's ears. This lasts until the band suddenly steps on the brakes and delivers a rather soothing ballad or a indie pop singer/songwriter piece. Who knows what the next track will bring? I think it's rather a plus of the release, even if the band sounds best when the brake pedal is never touched.

Last Leg of the Human Table costs 9.99 USD.

Check: Clover Looper

Country: Indiana, US

Genre: (various kinds of) dreamy

Label: Closed Casket Activities