Marielle V Jakobsons - The Patterns Lost to Air (2026)

California-based artist Marielle V Jakobsons has never been posted about on this blog, even though I highly value her previous album, 2016's Star Core. It makes it extremely interesting as what finally brought her here is an album marked by the notion of change and leaving one's comfort zone, which includes the change of the music itself.

The Patterns Lost to Air is a collection of lively soundscapes filled with glimmering electronica and wild, ellusive sounds. When I listen to this kind of ambient, I always picture a meadow on a warm, summer day. Life everywhere, even if not visible at first. It's hard to believe that Jakobsons' best works so far have been droney and dark neoclassical/electronic pieces. It's like the same place seen at night: both beautiful, both showing similar shapes, but inherently very different. And perhaps this is what I like about this album so much: it's a proof that change can be good, especially when you change from beautiful to beautiful. 

The Patterns Lost to Air costs 10 USD.

Check: Warm Spring

Country: California, US

Genre: lively soundscape

Label: Thrill Jockey Records

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Osnova - Rise the Sun (2025)

Sometimes, the melancholic and dreamy music fans also want to dance. Three years after their debut album, the Californian trio brings another occasion to do just that with their second album rightly called Rise the Sun.

Jean-Claude Vorgeack and Sam Ribeyro's extremely airy guitars that blend together with drums into a warm and ethereal mist represent the dreamy side of the Americans' music. However, it is counterbalanced with high-pitched, fresh and distinctive vocals provided by Caroline McLaughlin. This is not your ordinary pairing and it bears extraordinary fruits as well: the mist becomes energetic and full of hopeful melody. Especially when the backgrounds become dominant as it is the case in the title track.

I appreciate this slightly different take on the dreamy music. maybe not everything has to be melancholic to the core. With this kind of lively, melodic music, it really is possible to raise the Sun.

Rise the Sun costs 6 USD.

Check: Blame the Fates

Country: California, US

Genre: lively dream pop

Label: Dune Altar

OSNOVA - OSNOVA (2022)

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Tremours - Fragments (2025)

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Back in 2022 I posted about a single from a new dreamy band from California (yes, another one) and now I'm happy to say that the band developed into a full-fledged ethereal power, one ready to show their debut album to the world. And you have to know that the Lauren Andino and Glenn Fryatt duo's music is out of the top league.

Andino's vocals are the base of the project's warm and airy vibes. The rather slow and very much cosy melodies fit flow from the very first track like a stream of consciousness. This also reflects what the vocalist says about their work: "Most of our songs center around loneliness. Not necessarily sadness, but the comfort that you can find in being lonely". Being alone in the cosy way. The vocals are supported by the music in which the bass lines are what stands out the most, making me use the ethereal wave tag to describe the band. I like those moments when the music grows out of the background and shines the most as in tad noisier Dark Glasses but my favourite song as to be the melodic, West Coast nostalgia in Devil Town.

The duo is becoming a big deal which you can sense from the fact that the album attracted artists such as Peter Holmström (The Dandy Warhols) and Mark van Hoen (The Locust) as well as Simon Scott of Slowdive who mastered the whole endeavour. 

Fragments costs 9.99 USD.

Check: Devil Town

Country: California, US

Genre: ethereal wave

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memoryloop - being and nothingness (2024)

They started as "pedestrian", now they create their music as memoryloop; they look like your average nugaze band of the latest generation, but they make music that is a tasteful combination of slow shoegaze and post-rock; they are from California, but they music says "somewhere cold". This is the second debut of the band and it feels amazing.

They make music to "give [the artists'] silly little lives a little bit of meaning" and, in my books, it's just the best reason to do that. From the look and feel of their image, I wasn't expecting a long, classically post-rock track to open the album. It's this sort of surprises that catches your attention, definitely. And it really sets up the tone of the whole thing: it is particularly solemn and melancholic. Slow. Deep. It sounds like a narcoleptic ambient pop that is mashed up with guitar post-rock tracks from time to time. Makes me think of Midwife if she played with, say, Ranges. Amazing combo.

I love when an album takes different, sometimes very different elements and yet succeeds in making them sound like a whole. Especially when they are a real party for borderline melancholics. This is my vibe.

being and nothingness costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: earth exit

Country: California, US

Genre: dreamy slowcore/post-rock

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EERIÆRMOR - EERIÆRMOR (2024)

Kevin Gan Yuen known from the black noise Sutekh Hexen and as Fermentae released his first album under the moniker of EERIÆRMOR. The self-titled LP makes a great combination of two sides of electronica: the lively ambient and industrial noise. And those contrasting vibes go together surprisingly well.

The album is designed to convey "a powerful emotional imprint, guiding the listener from states of liminal ecstasis to expressing unification of beauty and brutality". The way the artist achieves it is combining beautiful ambient () passages with moments of harsh noise, creating this kind of contrast that is very satisfying to listen to. Although, to be fair, the harshness of the noise is softer than I'd expect so the barrier to entry is not that significant. 

EERIÆRMOR costs 7 USD.

Check: I, Rainmaker

Country: California, US

Genre: noisy electronica

Label: Cyclic Law

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Wale Fall - Five (2024)

It's almost five years since this Los Angeles band appeared on the blog with their fourth album. As the title of the new one suggests, I haven't missed any of their releases in the way and it's a good thing as the Americans offer a quality guitar-based post-rock soaked with their own unique style based on the use of brass instruments.

The touch of the brass instruments sound is certainly something that makes the band unique. In fact, the album is opened by El Jinete, a track that revolves around, what I presume is, the traditional Mexican trumpet music. I mean I know it from westerns and Zorro probably, but this is my association, and, if it's correct, I like the fact that the Californian band embraces the region's history and channels it in their music. Unique and coherent. But the band use even more unorthodox instrument, like cello that adds to the atmospheric side of their music.

But the overall vibes on the album are less atmospheric or noisy and more into the melodic nature of instrumental music. In fact, I'd say it's music that sits on the verge of what we consider post-rock and it's a good thing too. This is also strengthen by the act that the musicians also stress how important improvisation is for their creative process, making me think less of post-rock and more of other instrumental-only genres. Regardless, a unique album with great music (and some sense of humour too in some of the track titles). 

Five costs 7 USD.

Whale Fall - It Will Become Itself (2020)

Check: Fjord Lightning

Country: California, US

Genre: melodic post-rock

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Magic Wands - Switch (2023)

It's time for already the sixth album in the California-based band's discography and I have to say, Magic Wands are one of the lesser known dreamy artists whom I find the most consistently good with what they do. As it is the case with this year's Switch.

Their dream pop feels like hot chocolate: it's beautiful but not high-paced, it's atmospheric but melodic, it's dark. I can feel notes of wave and post-punk here (especially thanks to the clear bass line backgrounds), but the whole thing is more dreamy and hazy than cold and minimalist. It's great pop music with this gloomier hint and ethereal mood all over it. The balance between all the ingredients is pretty good here and it's one of the reasons I find the band so good since 2018's Abrakadabra (and I need to check out the previous albums as well). For hardcore fans, the Bandcamp version of the album includes remixes that make the release virtually twice as long. 

Switch costs 10.99 USD.

Magic Wands - Illuminate (2020)

Magic Wands - Abrakadabra (2018)

Check: Switch

Country: California, US

Genre: wave-esque dream pop

Label: Metropolis Records

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Cruel Diagonals - Fractured Whole (2023)

Megan Mitchell makes music as Cruel Diagonals. Her new album is another example as of late of music created entirely with the artist's vocals (very recently I posted about Aphir's new album with similar theme), but Fractured Whole is as experimental as it's ethereal.

When you look at the titles of the tracks, you automatically think of Lingua Ignota and it's not my only connotation: there is something from Kristin Hayter in the vocals as well. But unlike her, Mitchell drowns the compositions in both extremely airy and very glitchy vibes. If you like sacral-like, ethereal vocals surrounding you from every direction but also being reshaped by experimental electronic music, this is definitely something for you. The compositions are rarely put within more formulated structures and often freely go wherever the artist wants them to.

Fractured Whole costs 8 USD.

Check: Penance

Country: California, US

Genre: vocal-only electronica

Label: Beacon Sound

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Tombstones in Their Eyes - Sea of Sorrow (2023)

The California-based band Tombstones in Their Eyes is one of my favourite shoegazey bands that welcome tons of inspirations from other genres to their music. Led by John Treanor, the outfit release their albums quite frequently and it was time for the fourth one in their discography called Sea of Sorrow.

Following the two fantastic albums Maybe Someday and Looking for a Light, the new album builds on what the predecessors introduced: the dense, desert psychedelia wed with hazy noise and dreamy vocals. It is as mesmerizing as it is ethereal. This, plus the unbelievably catchy melodies (some instant hits here, like for example The Bitter Ones) result in something that is both quite unique and exciting. The album is long and but is designed to keep the listener's attention til the very end with the Americana elements (like the focus on the engaging plot of the lyrics) and the psychedelic whirlpool of hazy sounds in the title's sea of sorrow.

Sea of Sorrow costs 9 USD.

Tombstones in Their Eyes - Looking for a Light (2021)

Check: The Bitter Ones

Country: California, US

Genre: shoegazey psychedelic rock

Label: Kitten Robot Records

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Draag - Dark Fire Heresy (2023)

The Californian band Draag debuted back in 2018 and it's finally time they released a follow-up album. They filled this year's Dark Fire Heresy with high-quality nugaze music so it has everything a fan of the genre could want.

Their Facebook account includes a super short but extremely accurate description of their music: "a storm in slow motion". The shoegaze guitar effects, together with the overall energy and might of the sound make incredible impression: the best artists of the genre would agree here I'm sure. Another thing is that the music doesn't feel repetitive in the modern shoegaze context. There are electronic elements that add up to the uniqueness of the music, but, mot importantly, the compositions feel very fresh. Maybe it's not Flaming Lips, but there's a good deal of psychedelic experimentation here as well.

It all results in exciting, lively but also very noisy compositions. The quality of the vocals, in my eyes (ears), qualifies the music more as nugaze than the modern take on the classic shoegaze music. It's more flow-rich and soothing than dispersed and hazy. But it doesn't really matter as the final result is the same: overwhelmed and blessed audience. 

Dark Fire Heresy costs 9 USD.

Check: Demonbird

Country: California, US

Genre: psychedelic nugaze

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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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The Coral Sea - Golden Planet Sky (2023)

Rey Villalobos' The Coral Sea was one of  the most important bands of my younger years. Firelight was the album that opened my eyes on the dreamy side of indie rock and Villalobos' voice was the one I thought about when thinking about the moodiest of vocals. After a while, the artist decided to make solo music under the moniker of House of Wolves and now The Coral Sea is finally back. But Golden Planet Sky is Villalobos solo once again.

So it's not going to be very surprising to say that music-wise, the new album is closer to House of Wolves than to the old The Coral Sea. Once again, it is an intimate experience with Villalobos warm and dreamy voice and his melancholic music. It's like less depressive Raised by Swans, more acoustic Ruby Haunt and less flashy Cigarettes After Sex. And while it is a solo project now, it doesn't mean the main guy is alone. There's actually a nice variety of instruments with horns (played by Kelly Pratt) or baritone (John Morgan Askew), making this dream pop music sound like a really well-done art rock. 

Golden Planet Sky costs 9 USD.

Check: Love Is No Sacrifice

Country: California, US

Genre: acoustic dream pop

Label: Trees They Move

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Soft Blue Shimmer - Love Lives in the Body (2022)

Back in November, the Californian band Soft Blue Shimmer released their sophomore album called Love Lives in the Body . The moody dream pop featured there certainly should be considered by any fan of the genre who looks for something new to add to their personal playlists.

This is the kind of music that is filled with melancholia and nostalgia and that forms those feelings in a dreamy and melodic moulds. There is a certain dose of guitar noise in the backgrounds but the music itself is rarely the first thing you notice. It's more about Meredith Ramond's dreamy vocals, this is what mesmerizes the audience. The softness, the gloomy hue and the sad vibes all over those vocals are the perfect fit for the noise pop the band makes. The album is very well-leveled and it's difficult to point to one track that stands out, but I feel like it represents the very essence of the nostalgic noisy music.

Love Lives in the Body costs 10 USD.

Check: Prism of Feeling

Country: California, US

Genre: noise pop

Label: Other People Records

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Twin Oaks - Strangers (2022)

Today, a very similar post to the yesterday's one: a band I really like (this time it's dream pop from US though) with their third album and some line-up changes (this time the duo became a collective of three). Strangers is such a fantastic album, a great continuation of Twin Oaks' discography.

The album's opening sound already surprised the hell out of me: the aggressive, almost dub-step like wall of noise welcomes the audience to the new release. This was only a jump scare as the whole thing sounds more like the previous ones: the ridiculously moody dream pop ballads fueled by the emotional vocals by Lauren Brown. However, it seems that their music became more complex, there is more going on in the backgrounds with some interesting electronica bits, sampling and generally, very modern approach leads to the fantastic level of immersion the listener experiences. The flow of the songs is immersive, it's difficult not to get carried away.

But those are still mostly ballads. Somehow it works together very well (so well audible in New York). So the whole album ranges from dreamy ballads, through some alternative r'n'b-like vibes, up to full blown electronica - and it all is kept together by Twin Oaks signature, very moody style. 

Strangers costs 8 USD.

Check: Reflex

Country: California, US

Genre: electronica dream pop

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Shaki Tavi - Shaki Tavi (2022)

Leon Mosburg leads the Californian group Shaki Tavi. The Americans have recently released their first LP ever and with this self-titled album, a new and exciting nugaze entity appeared on my personal map of the world.

The band delivers "blistering tones confined to pop song forms to rail against the ennui of daily life". This and the overall vibes coming from their image, made me expect some kind of wild psychedelic rock, but, while still fairly psychedelic, the outfit is very much into fuzzy, modern shoegaze. Their sound is quite close to Nothing: similar clean but delicate and withdrawn vocals, similar heavy pace and entertaining melodies. It all is hidden behind the wall of very loud noise. It's certainly an exciting, almost euphoric blend. The album is not particularly short, but the otherworldly flow it represents make this 30 minutes disappear suddenly in a colourful and deafening bliss.

Shaki Tavi costs 10 USD.

Check: Voices

Country: California, US

Genre: nugaze

Label: Mutation Records

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The Stargazer Lilies - Cosmic Tidal Wave (2022)

For me, The Stargazer Lilies are synonymous with dense and moody shoegaze. A real shoegaze, if you will. The Californian band released their fifth album recently and, while there's no hit like Golden Key was, it represents the high quality oneiric psychedelia.

It's worth noting that, despite their name, the band is really into metaphors that involve the Sun as the new album is opened with Lit Like the Sun. Or maybe not really "despite" as the Sun is also a star. Anyway, the opening song introduces the album's psychedelic, heavy and slightly lo-fi atmosphere. This all results in a captivating experience, bringing together the psychedelia's trance and shoegaze's deafening abilities. And the raw excitement coming from the noise is especially well audible in Distant Space. And it's just a start as from this point, the dam breaks and the pure oneiric enthusiasm drowns the audience until the end of the record.

Yet another Sun-related track, Purple Sunshine, may be one of the album's highlights with the melodic and even glitchy, at one point, vibes. Those references to light are really very much in tune with the music itself as its overwhelming noise feels more luminous than dark, making the whole release hopeful and euphoric.

Cosmic Tidal Wave costs 9 USD.

The Stargazer Lilies - Lost (2017)

Check: Purple Sunshine

Country: California, US

Genre: luminous shoegaze

Label: Floravinyl Records

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OSNOVA - OSNOVA (2022)

The California-based trio OSNOVA are the newest dreamy music explorers from this region. They released their debut self-titled EP recently, showing some good, oneiric pop/rock skills.

I love the way Caroline McLaughlin's vocals' airy sound works with the music here. The artists propose a decent amount of noisy backgrounds, from time to time changing the vibes to more acoustic rock-like, but overall, mostly within the noisy realm. The bass lines are also surprisingly often well-audible. That's also why this is the kind of music that takes on the dreamy appearance where it fits but doesn't shy away from going towards the more indie rock direction. It could definitely be of better quality sound-wise, but perhaps it's good enough for the debut. Also, I love the album's finish in Solicitation (They're Coming On).

OSNOVA costs 4.99 USD.

Check: Solicitation (They're Coming On)

Country: California, US

Genre: dreamy indie rock

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Tony Anderson - Debris (2022)

A year ago, Tony Anderson appeared on my blog with Nuit, but this time, the Californian artist has something different to offer. Debris is a theme album about the 9/11 attacks and it's structured to feel like a "an experiential and audible documentary".

Apart from the dark and sadness-filled music, the album is filled with fields recordings and samples from news from over a decade ago. We all remember this day, but the album is designed for us to feel as if we were there. As Anderson puts it, "the music isn't supposed to be the focal point - I want you to feel like you're at street level hearing and experiencing these events the way that so many did. If anything, the music is supposed to simply support whatever it is that you need to feel" and it's an absolutely poignant experience. But in the artist's work, it's not only about the difficult topic, the music

that conveys the message is also extremely beautiful, very much thanks to the inclusion of the neoclassical instruments. All of this makes the album both beautiful and airy as well as unnerving and tear-jerking which makes a unique combination indeed.

Debris costs 7 USD.

Tony Anderson - Nuit (2021)

Check: Infinite

Country: California, US

Genre: documentary soundscape

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WatchCamp July-August '22 with glaston, The Heart of the Sun, Jellies, Jiangnan Shangguan, T R E M O U R S

glaston - I Am Whole

Yet another fantastic project from Switzerland; but the Zurich's outfit are not new to the music stage, they are around since 2014 and have released one full length album. The new singles are filled with very moody post-rock with classical elements and I hope the new album is released as soon as possible. This one track costs 1 USD.

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The Heart of the Sun - Probably Not

Stockholm-based Filiph Antonsson leads this music project that goes with moody but also pretty complex compositions and very sad vocals ornamented with voice samples and finished with mesmerizing psychedelic passage. It's a real autumn kind of music. The single costs 0.75 EUR (8 SEK).

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Jellies - Always

Two artists, Adam and Tommy live on the other sides of the Atlantic Ocean but they manage to create something very dreamy and very melodic together. Especially the first track here creates particularly moody atmosphere in this bedroom pop kind of style. Two songs cost 2.5 EUR (2 GBP).

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Jiangnan Shangguan - No Beginning Where Everything Ends

A member of the Californian post-rock outfit In Lights, Jiangnan Shangguan, created a deliciously atmospheric, ambient pop-like experiment. There are emotional vocals here but distant and covered by noisy music all around. The track costs whatever you want to pay.

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T R E M O U R S - Affectations

The Lauren Andino-Glenn Fryatt duo comes from Los Angeles and, very much in the Californian noise/dream pop fashion, released an extremely airy piece of melodic music. Andino's vocals are utterly oneiric while still managing to bring catchy melodies to life. Three songs cost 5 USD.

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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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