Gloios - Polvorosa (2025)

A beautiful mess from Brazil; Rafael Xavier aka Gloios, the artist from São Paulo, himself calls his new album a mess that encompasses a shitload of various music genres. But the coherent slowcore warm atmosphere brings everything together, making Polvorosa a beautiful, musical journey.

Let me quote the artist further: "post-rock, ambient music, metal, dream pop..." but also Brazilian music like MPB, forró, samba, xote, baião which I know nothing about, all of this makes up the third album in Xavier's discography. Everything is based on slightly industrial electronica, but there is also some, very distant, very echoey and everything but clear vocals. And it doesn't really matter because you can hear the genres like you can see pebbles in muddy water. There is something there, but who knows what exactly? And the water is warm and welcoming, slightly terrifying, but you have to go in and let it go.

I love it when music clearly shows where it comes from and you can have little doubt that this is the sound from Brazil. There is so much going on there: various rhythms, paces, dance moves, everything slightly hidden but also clearly felt. Just listen to the weirdness of Boiafria or my favourite, very mysterious Ficha.

Polvorosa costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: Ficha

Country: Brazil

Genre: ethereal eclectic slowcore?

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Lumnos - Na santa paz da aurora (2025)

The illuminated cover art says it all: this album is all about electronic blackgaze filled with the light as much as with the darkness. Lomnos comes from Brazil and I have to say, there is something in the Latin America that invites the solo acts that bring a lot of energy to the blackgaze community.

And while I haven't heard of the artist before, it is not a new name on the scene as this album is meant to be released to celebrate the 10 years of the project. Interestingly enough, the artist calls their music "Ambient Black Metal" which, I guess, is a good way of describing blackgaze. At least the amount of electronica makes sense (albeit far from ambient's peacefulness). Quite the opposite, there is so much going on in this music, not only the occasional black metal vocals and energetic drums. If this is an ad for the artist's last 10 years of music, I'm sold.

Na santa paz da aurora costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: Janaína

Country: Brazil

Genre: electronic blackgaze

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Carlos Ferreira - Dust Inside the Light (2024)

There's a few ambient artist who I find consistently inspiring and the Brazilian Carlos Ferreira is one of them as his new album (19th I think in the last five years) is at least just as good as the ones I know. The dreamy, lively but melancholic vibes are what draw me to his music.

This liveliness of the little sounds dancing around you, but never stay long enough to be encapsulated and studied, tons of things going around you so fast that feel weightless, this is the kind of experience I seek in Ferreira's music and I'm never disappointed. The December album  brings it all once again so I can enjoy the ethereal ambient vibes as long as I want. Especially that the release features his compatriot Rita Zart and two additional remixes, making it a beautiful journey into the dreamy soundscapes.

Dust Inside the Light costs 5.20 EUR.

Check: Dissolving the Self

Country: Brazil

Genre: lively ambient

Label: Archives 

Carlos Ferreira & Ki Oni - A Hundred Ways of Escaping (2022)

Carlos Ferreira & Almanacs - La Deriva (2021)

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terraplana - olhar pra tr​á​s (2023)

The underground very noisy music from Brazil makes another appearance on my blog. This time, it's all about the Curitiba-based terraplana who have recently released their first ever LP called olhar pra tr​á​s.

The album is kept in this very much melancholic atmosphere (the title itself translates to "Look back") which is built with the extremely noisy, lo-fi sounding guitars and dispersed vocals. The latter are provided by Stephani Heuczuk who, together with another band member, Cassiano Kruchelski, interestingly enough for me have names that give out some kind or Poland-related origins. Anyway, music-wise there's everything one would expect from the shoegaze music with strong lo-fi vibes: the guitar noise is something that reigns the compositions and makes an overwhelming effect on the audience with the melodies and vocals struggling to resurface. But this is what we are here for.

olhar pra tr​á​s costs 7 USD.

Check: memórias

Country: Brazil

Genre: lo-fi shoegaze

Label: Balaclava Records

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Tomoyoshi Date - 438Hz As It Is, As You Are [​あ​る​が​ま​ま​、​あ​な​た​の​ま​ま​に​] (2022)

Although not that long ago Tomoyoshi Date was present on this blog with an album created together with Stijn Huwels, last year's 438Hz As It Is, As You Are [​あ​る​が​ま​ま​、​あ​な​た​の​ま​ま​に​] is only his third solo album since 2008. 

The music here is built upon the beautiful, though not extremely melodic sounds of piano keys. This is more an ambient recording played on a real instrument than your average neoclassical piece. The compositions are filled with delicate noise and subtle fuzziness, but the piano is definitely the main player here. This slow, moody music is a real band-aid on a bruised soul, but it was created with a particularly interesting idea in mind, as the artist describes, it's meant to have "the listener adjust the pitch at the desired speed according to the mood and frequency of [them] at that time". For me, it works at the melancholy level.

438Hz As It Is, As You Are [​あ​る​が​ま​ま​、​あ​な​た​の​ま​ま​に​] costs 6 EUR.

Stijn Hüwels + Tomoyoshi Date - 遠き火、遠き雲’ ​(​A Distant Fire​,​ A Distant Cloud) (2021)

Check: 光 Hikari (45 rpm)

Country: Brazil/Japan

Genre: piano ambient

Label: laaps

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Carlos Ferreira & Ki Oni - A Hundred Ways of Escaping (2022)

This is another geographically challenged collaboration I post about this week. This time it's Carlos Ferreira from Brazil, a musician I love from his work with Almanacs last year, and Chuck Soo-Hoo aka Ki Oni from California. They utilized the vast distance between them on a beautiful album called A Hundred Ways of Escaping.

Knowing Ferreira's work, it's no surprise that the album is filed with subtle but very lively music. It is both mesmerizing and filled with a multitude of sounds, I would call it a psychedelic soundscape as it unveils in front of our souls but in a very peculiar way. The music is accompanied by a picturesque short story that starts with a sentence "A single broken tree stands in a field of mud" and deals with a scary, poignant but also hopeful reality around us. Interestingly, Ki Oni's moniker comes from a Japanese monster who is supposed to be "a tree with a human face that spews flower pedals from its mouth". If it's just a coincident, one thing is clear: both musicians draw a lot from nature around us and it's very tangible in their work.

A Hundred Ways of Escaping costs 5 USD.

Carlos Ferreira & Almanacs - La Deriva (2021)

Check: Bounded Rationality

Country: Brazil & California, US

Genre: psychedelic soundscape

Label: Umé Records

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Turmallina - Aurora (2022)

Turmallina come from Brazil and have just released their debut album called Aurora. It is filled with catchy tunes wrapped in ethereal blanket of subtle noise and distortions. It is the kind of music that should be danced to, even if it's not necessarily happy.

As so many artists do nowadays, Turmallina's inspirations come from the urge to provide some escapism means and lose the burden of feelings, as they say: "in times as distressing and new as this period of pandemics, Aurora comes with a strong sense of identification, nostalgia and, above all, an exit to another time, to a dream". Their idea to achieve that was to create melodic and carefree-sounding indie pop with dreamy vibes all over. The album was made far from professional studios and it is audible, but, as often, the lo-fi atmosphere only makes this burst of feeling more honest and genuine. And the further one goes through the album, the louder, more nugaze it gets, with Escadas and Nádia sounding like the Brazilian response to The Pains of Being Pure at Heart.

Aurora costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: Escadas 

Country: Brazil

Genre: dreamy psychedelic pop

Label: Tratore

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KAATAYRA - Inpariquipê (2022)

Caio Lemos comes from Brazil and creates his music under the moniker of KAATAYRA. And it's quite outstanding what he does: the blend of psychedelic rock and black metal makes the last year's Inpariquipê really special.

He also calls his music "acoustic black metal" and I can understand why: the whole compositions are based on the repetitive passages of drums and... pretty exotic-sounding tropical music in the backgrounds. The psychedelic music's ability to mesmerize the audience is all over the place here, which makes the compositions suck the listener in with ease. This tropical component is also extremely interesting; it needs no explanation that black metal is usually connected with cold places (geographically speaking) and when a project's from a country like Brazil (and the South American metal scene is also very strong), they usually embrace the Nordic themes as well. Kaatayra is an exception here; every second of his music says that he's very well connected to the tropical reality around him and I appreciate that.

So where's the metal part in all of this actually? The artist's fifth album is filled with instrumental music mostly, but there are fragments that include his desperate, angry vocals. Still, they feel like they are put in the backgrounds, sounding more like shouting in a wilderness with much anger, but not so much power when compared to the forces of nature. It's perfect in Dundararaiê where the metal vocals additionally get a tribal treatment only empowering the mesmerizing features of the whole album. 

Inpariquipê costs whatever you want to pay (if you buy on the artist's Bandcamp site).

Check: Dundararaiê

Country: Brazil

Genre: tropical acoustic black metal

Label: Weary Bird Records/Pest Productions

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Carlos Ferreira & Almanacs - La Deriva (2021)

After three (!) albums last year alone, the Brazilian artist Carlos Ferreira is back with what's the best music from him I heard so far. And he's not alone as La Deriva is the result of collaboration with Wilmer Murillo who is better known as Alamanacs.

The two ambient artists come from two different countries in Latin America, Brazil and Honduras, and this alone makes this release quite special (read more about it on the Bandcamp page). But there's a lot more to this album as it's one of the best ambient works I've heard for some time now. Together, the two artists create some extremely beautiful soundscapes of multi-layered electronica and longing. Tracks like Ausencia, Desdén y Fortuna are so pretty that it hurts. It is even more impressive as the album is unscripted, it's a "spontaneous exploration of abstract concepts and blurry images" by two artists that became a brilliant album.

La Deriva costs 5 USD.

Check: Ausencia, Desdén y Fortuna

Country: Brazil, Honduras

Genre: ambient soundscape

Label: giraffe tapes

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sonhos tomam conta - hypnagogia (2021)

Sonhos tomam conta is a project created by the Brazilian artist known only as Lua. This is some particularly grim and depressing shoegaze music, probably even blackgaze, though with only a few metal-derived elements throughout the album. But hypnagogia is still moody as hell, it's dreamy as hell and it's also very, very sad.

The project's name translates to "Dreams Take Over" but this is not put in the sweet and ethereal context here. The artist suffers from acute depression and suicidal thoughts are a constant in her life since she was a teenager, and the album reflects that, as she puts it, "this album is about me coming to the realization that I don't have many years left in my life" and "it's just a preparation for a bigger fall into the nothingness that makes me who I am". This all is terrifying enough but then there are also hallucinations she experiences and the album aims to recreate them. The artist's story itself makes me think of some of my favourite musicians like Paragraphs and Eric Howden who struggle and fuel their art works with this struggle.

Everything on the album is kept in dark and dreamy atmosphere. The pace is very slow and the compositions take their time but never really get louder, there's no conclusion and no crescendos. It's all about the sadness in the airy vocals and the channeling of depression that affects the audience from every minute of the release, from the ultimately ambient-pop-like ballads (meu corpo é uma prisão ("My Body Is a Prison")) to the most metal-like tracks (like this tweet isn't funny anymore or my favourite, epic magnum of lonely people in neon cities) The album is a proof for this miserably uplifting conclusion that even the worse that can happen in your life may result in something beautiful.

hypnagogia costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: lonely people in neon cities

Country: Brazil

Genre: depressive blackgaze

Label: Longinus Recordings

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This Lonely Crowd - Bellelouder (2021)

This is one of the most prominent alternative bands on the Brazilian scene. It doesn't mean they are very popular outside of the country, I hadn't heard of them before honestly, but I can safely say that they should be. This year they released their 8th album in the over a decade-long career and entitled it Bellelouder.

What they do is a great rendition of what the 90s. noisy rock was. Very indie rock-like but also extremely noisy and rough in form, the songs here could as well be recorded 20 years ago by The Jesus and Mary Chain or some other, similar artists. The psychedelic spirit of this music means, however, that the compositions here are far from straightforward ones, they can easily be a harsher pop rock hit song but also a psychedelic guitar-fest going well without much vocals and form as well. This, together with the retro vibes, means that you can hardly get bored while listening to the release.

There's also another thing, I know it's probably not true but I can sense (or imagine) some interesting inspirations taken from Neil Gaiman's works. Like the cover art similar to the ones from Sandman comics written by the author or a made-up word "Neverwhere" casually used in a track title. I'm probably reaching (mostly because Gaiman is one of my favourite writers), but it would be super interesting if true.

Bellelouder costs 4 USD.

Check: Avisrara

Country: Brazil

Genre: retro noise rock

Label: Sinewave

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Rod Sigautt - Castle of Sand (2020) EN

Rodrigo Sigautt is a young artist from Rio, completely unknown (20 likes on FB) but wonderfully talented and his debut album Castle of Sand drew my attention with its lovely, DYI dream pop.

From the very beginning you can hear that the album was created with a PC and probably in a bedroom. But it doesn't matter when you find it so great to listen to. On one hand, elegant melodies and unconstrained vocals, on the other, drowned in reverbs atmospheric backgrounds. Sometimes there's some play on clear beats that sounds somewhat like dream r'n'b, sometimes some of the orchestral grandeur (like in The Blue), also a lot of keys keeping up the pace and adding to the atmosphere (as in the fantastic, instrumental Dancing as Flying Leaves Surround You).

I like the Brazilian's voice - perfectly balancing the pop's catchiness and dream pop's melancholy, especially in the ultra sad It's Silent on the Outside. It's always great to find an unknown gem like this, I hope the artist will achieve something in his career as there's a lot of potential.

Castle of Sand costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: The Blue

Country: Brazil

Genre: lo-fi dream pop

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Morto - Sentir (2020) EN

I don't have to convince anyone about the Brazilian around-post-metal scene's strength (*COUGH* Labirinto *COUGH*) and now we witness this again. This time it's the country's North's Natal-based quartet who in January released their debut album called Sentir.

Introducing themselves as playing experimental metal influenced by everything from crust to post-rock, the musicians definitely dont' hesitate to make really long, complex songs. You can easily notice there those post-rock inspirations and, perhaps it's a bit too much though, you could say that it's basically post-rock with the hoarse, very metal-like vocals. How monumental their tracks are is best seen in Ausente, almost 16-minutes-long song filed with slow guitar music entangled with heart-touching metal.

Sentir costs 7 USD.

Check: Ausente

Country: Brazil

Genre: metallic post-rock

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Labirinto - Divino Afflante Spiritu (2019) EN

The Brazilians from Labirinto are proud to be releasing their music from 13 years and having no major competition in South America. While I'm not entirely in agreement with the latter, the fact is that their new album, Divino Afflante Spiritu, shows tons of heavy and great guitar quality.

For the band centered around the married couple of guitarist Eric Cruksen and drummer Muriel Curi, it's only the third long play but they do have experience drawn from EPs and splits (with THISQUIETARMY amongst others). It's visible as the new album has zero moments of unnecessary sounds. Heavy, metal guitars are combined with sporadic growl and structured into very much post-rock-like compositions. Those louder ones, such as Eleh Ha Devarim, emit sound aggression that within its loudness incorporates sad, melancholic notes though.

On the other hand, Labirinto's tracks often aim into epic grandeur. An example here would be Demiurge combing very metal guitars with the atmosphere of self-aware post-rock. The latter is the best visible in the album's best, title and closing the whole LP Divino Afflante Spiritu. In fact, the whole album balances on this difficult to define and extremely intriguing border of post-rock and post-metal.

Divino Afflante Spiritu costs 7.99 EUR.

Check: Divino Afflante Spiritu 

Country: Brazil

Genre: metal post-rock

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WatchCamp September'18 - Big Faith, Mais Valia, Nate Way, Starover Blue, Yann Novak (2018) EN

Big Faith - Whiskey from a Measuring Cup

Lo-fi indie pop with a huge dose of oneiric vibe and very, very catchy melody, interesting debut. The single costs 1 USD.

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Mais Valia - Desterro

Post-rock stoner collective from Brazil proves that their strength are heavy guitars and southern atmosphere. Two-track EP costs whatever you want to pay.

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Nate Way - Million Lights

Utterly beautiful dream pop song from the incoming solo album called "AXOLOTL" by Souvenir Driver's frontman. The single can be yours for whatever you pay.

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Starover Blue - Anemone

Exceptionally oneiric dream pop from Oregon, already two albums released but this track makes you impatiently wait for the third one. The single and a remix cost whatever you want to pay.

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Yann Novak - Performance of Masculinity

A little bit of droning magic from California. Two tracks cost 2 GBP.

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Inner Silence - Luna (2018) EN

Lucas Vallim is a Brazilian composer and producent creating his music also as Inner Silence. And whatever is really inside him, it gets outside as neoclassical ambient with very distinct space flavour.

The musician is fascinated by "deep melodies, gentle sound soundscapes and atmospheric sounds". "Luna" shows just this. Written as musical impression of a space shuttle leaving Earth's atmosphere, the album does surprise from time to time with sounds reminding of the noise of engines ("Takeoff") or the air outside's. But between those, it is filled with beautiful keys and strings of guitar and violins. All this reminds me of the sense of awe after seeing our planet from the space point of view.

All the time during this orbital journey, we are accompanied by the atmosphere of melancholic sadness, as if we were sure we were not going back home.

"Luna" costs 3 USD.

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Cora - El Rapto (2018) EN

Two natures of every woman, the one represented by the mythical Cora and the one symbolized by Persephone, complicated creation seeking and aiming to lose innocence and gain strength, this is the leit motif and driving force of the Brazilian dream pop band Cora. Well thought trough foundations for awe inspiring music the musicians show on "El Rapto".

Inspiration from Greek mythology is tangible everywhere - from the band's name, through track titles and lyrics, up to the classical representation of femininity on the cover art.  But musically speaking, it is closer to South USA, with California- or Texas-like female shoegaze with unkempt layer of guitars and electronics and diffused vocals. The songs are so well balanced that they are exactly half-way between pop catchiness and airy atmosphere.

Everything sounds great, even, or perhaps especially, when the lyrics are sung in Portuguese. You don't have to know the language to feel what it is about. There are some moments that are surprising, especially the lyrics in Greek in "Kόρη" combined with top-shelf dream pop chorus making it the most tasty combination of the album.

"El Rapto" can be yours for whatever you pay.

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Seyfert - Boa Noite/Boa Sorte (2018) EN

Seyfert is a solo project of André Luiz, that evolved into a four-pieces band with Yasmin Cruz as a vocalist. The Brazilians have just released their album "Boa Noite/Boa Sorte" where they emit so much eclecticism that doesn't make the atmosphere of the album any less unique.

Diversity is what's the most characteristic for this album. It starts with a delicate neoclassic intro and if it made someone less vigilant, they can be really surprised when "Nomes e Datas" 's guitars suddenly hit. They are not very loud but surely are aggressive. Still though, they go down quite quickly and Seyfert's music becomes relaxing ("Pointeros") and even... electronically epic ("Transcurso").

Another surprise is the appearing of vocals in the second part of the album. Both the male one (in progressive rock-ish "Morfeu") and female (in the beautiful ballad "210117") fit well into the already established mood of the album. The real game changer though is the last track that lasts well over quarter and in which the band's eclecticism is closed within one track.

Two cherries on top appear in the Bandcamp's account of the group where you can download Mogwai's covers. And the Brazilians have great taste as they chose probably the most beautiful songs by the Scots, especially "Take Me Somewhere Nice".

"Boa Noite/Boa Sorte" is available for whatever you pay.

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Gray Souvenirs - The First Sight (2017) EN

Gray Souvenir, solo project by a Brazilian artist hidden behind the nickname of Putrefactus. If there's anyone up for a little bit pompous but also definitely full of darkness, noise and atmosphere blackgaze slash black metal, this is, again, a good address in South America.

The first sight is a bit like opposition to the primal scream, it's created when you find out how disappointing the world is, the world you entered with such an enthusiasm. But this album is about something more, it tells the story of "the energy that connects an atom to another. It's about the essential force who makes us exist. (...) The thin line that screams inside yourself in search of a answer". Ambitious.

Talking about music, it's equally elevated. Enormous walls of guitars and electronic backgrounds give way rarely and reluctantly to more peaceful compositions. Two tracks include also vocal that is still hidden behind the mountain ranges of loud music. As it should be, this is how you achieve this atmosphere.

"The First Sight" costs 5 USD.

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The Sorry Shop - Softspoken (2017) EN

The Sorry Shop: among the inspirations of the Brazilians are My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive and Cocteau Twins so you can bet that their music sounds like dreaming times haze, put together and transformed into notes.

And those notes fuel mostly distorted guitars that are able to be more delicate in some parts while in another ones they drill into your skull ("Pearls") and never hurrying drums. Also the vocals are almost copied and pasted from original shoegaze bands. Slightly lower quality of recordings not only doesn't bother but also glues the Sorry Shop's music into one, dense music smear.

Not only the band's music is dreamy, also the lyrics seem to be written in the REM sleep, as in "Daydream Dancing" ("Daydream dancing, dreamy sunsmile"), "Lost In Between" ("Sunny days, it seems to disappear, sounds like no one hears me") or in "Queen of the North" ("Faded by the blurry morning, touched by the sun, golden shades of pale voided skin"). And yes, just as one could guess judging by the country of origin, they write a lot about the Sun. That, apparently, does not prevent from dreaming.

"Softspoken" is available for whatever you want to pay.

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