Softcult - When a Flower Doesn't Grow (2026)

Whenever the Arn-Horn sisters release an album, it makes a storm in the less mainstream music world. The Canadian duo and their skillfully crafted songs (and very coherent image) charm the audience with the blend of dreaminess and punk's attitude, making the artists call their music "riotgaze".

And I feel like this riotgaze gets better and better with every release so it's only apt that the debut album (so far the band has only EPs in their discography) is their best work yet. As things should be. Short album with short songs the range of whose stretches from delicate, dreamy compositions to high-paced shoegaze indie rock of the best quality. The latter is represented by my favourite in here: 16/25. Incredible flow, the backgrounds that burst with energy and quality melody make it feel like a breeze, wishing it was longer than two minutes, thirty seconds. But that's the thing about this music: it's short and beautiful. Hurry loving the music.

But there is more! She Said, He Said is a hit banger, Hurt Me is the sisters embracing their punk side while When a Flower Doesn't Grow closes the album with delicate, airy sounds that turns into the most rock sounds on the release. Oh and very punkish of them is also that...

When a Flower Doesn't Grow costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: 16/25

Country: Canada

Genre: riotgaze

Label: Easy Life Records

Softcult - See You in the Dark (2023)

:bandcamp:

:facebook:
:official:

:instagram:

:youtube:

:spotify:

Tethered Hands - How We Live Is How We Die (2026)

I've covered their debut album exactly a year ago, but these guys have a great ability to create new music fast! And here we are, the transatlantic project is now five people in a band (they don't have a picture together though from obvious reasons) and two albums in their discography. Their piano and guitar kind of post-rock is as beautiful as ever and so the project band is one to have your eyes on as this time next year they will probably surprise us with even more great music.

As I mentioned before, pianist Joseph D. E. Phillips (US) (hi, Joseph!) and guitarist Daniel Rickards (UK) created ANOTHER transatlantic pact, but their aim is to create instrumental music despite of the obvious geographical barriers. Like a lot of water between them. Together with three new members (Pascal Normand, Sam Wallis and Joshua Cook), they can now fulfill the dream of becoming a real post-rock band, not just a project. And I think it's noticeable in their music: the complex compositions gained more dimensions while still having the same core values: piano keys as the structure that is complimented by guitar noise.

The artists translate their emotions into instrumental music, making it affect the audience in turn. As Joseph mentions: "We want [the fans] to feel something. We want the hairs to raise on their arms and their eyes to go wide". With the beauty of piano sounds, the ethereal, tear-jerking passages (so well done in Your Mind Is Going (I Can Feel It) and the guitars that ultimately add heaviness to the compositions, I feel like this goal has been reached. Make ŁŚ feel something? Check!

How We Live Is How We Die costs 5 USD.

Check: Ghost of Rochelbel

Country: US/UK/Canada

Genre: piano post-rock

Tethered Hands - Tethered Hands (2025)

:bandcamp:

:facebook:

:instagram:

:spotify:

thisquietarmy x otay:onii - Howl and Tell (2025)

;">

The collaboration between two outstanding experimental musician, thisquietarmy (Eric Quach) and otay:onii (Lane Shi) had to bear some exciting and valuable fruits. And, surprise, surprise, it did! Long and spacious, yet deeply intense. Imagine industrial ambient and noise folk music from your beautiful nightmares.

As mentioned on their instagram, the project was born during the 2023 tour that Quach went on in Europe and where Shi was supposed to be an opening act, but quickly got introduced in the main one as well. And I have to tell you, it was rather clear that the two would find a common language. The industrial soundscapes with noisy guitar sounds hidden in the backgrounds, lurking from the shadows fits perfectly with Shi's vocal improvisations that you can feel on your skin. Even when the backgrounds attack the most with the raw and dirty sounds, the vocals are still the most important to me. But maybe I'm just drawn to their uniqueness so much.

This autumn, otay:onii is playing a gig in Warsaw and I'd love to see her live finally. Maybe this will sooth the regrets I have from not going to thisquietarmy's performance at dunk!festival:)

Howl and Tell costs 8 EUR (7 GBP).

Check: Lips Touching the First Word in Sleeps

Country: Canada, China/Germany

Genre: industrial dark folk

Label: Cruel Nature Records

Hypnodrone Ensemble - Plays Orchestral Favourites (2018)

:bandcamp:

:facebook (Thisquietarmy):
:official (Thisquietarmy):

:instagram (Thisquietarmy):

:instagram (otay:onii):

Kestrels - Better Wonder (2025)

Coming from Nova Scotia, Canada, Kestrels is a love child of one Chad Peck. For some reason, I've never heard of the band although they play my kind of music and they do it for well over a decade now. Better Wonder is their fifth album so far and its catchy melodies and non-overwhelming noise-filled arrangements caught my attention with a fuzzy grip.

The release is filled with songs that are so memorable perhaps because they had been brewing for years. As the band mentions, the good amount of them comes from Peck's never released solo album. This time around, time helped the material grow to shine with this shoegazey/noise rocky shine that involves a soothing vocal, hearty lyrics and comforting fuzz in the backgrounds. It does feel a bit as if it was a solo album, making me appreciate the small scale beauty of the songs. It's fun, it's sunny, it's easily approachable. It's surf rock if it was possible to surf in Nova Scotia (which, I had to google, is in fact possible. But probably a bit cold).

The only thing I don't like on the album are those accentuated rock-like solo riffs taking the lead from time to time. But it's just a personal preference. What I like is certainly Dream of You in Black, as it is described, "a synthed-out Robert Smith-style love song to a fictional goth girl". I'm not an expert on The Cure, but I can hear that.

Better Wonder costs 10 USD.

Check: Dream of You in Black

Country: Nova Scotia, Canada

Genre: noise (surf-)rock

Label: Darla Records

:bandcamp:

:facebook:

:instagram:

:youtube:

:spotify:

Hollie Kenniff - For Forever (2024)

Hollie Kenniff, half of the Mint Julep duo, creates ambient music as a solo musician. The depth of this soft and airy electronica is unfathomed, encompassing both beauty and mystery in its abyss.

Piano keys like flower petals, synthy sounds like a delicate wind and then, there's the background of the compositions: deep, multi-layered, dark. This makes me think of a meadow early in the morning: the traces of the incoming day on the vast canvas of the night that is still close enough to be a little scary. Emotions. As the label describes the album, it "delivers miles of endless bliss" and that's very true. I love it.

For Forever costs 12 USD.

Check: Surface

Country: Canada/US

Genre: multi-layered ambient

Label: Nettwerk Music Group

:bandcamp:

:facebook:
:official:

:instagram:

:youtube:

:spotify:

Milanku - À l'aube (2023)

Milanku, the Quebec representation on the world's post-metal scene, is around for over 15 years now. Their ever-growing discography has recently been expanded by a new album called À l'aube.

The band "strikes with its brutal character, both nostalgic and melancholy" as they describe their music on their Bandcamp page. And it is very true: while they come from the post-hardcore environment, it is not that obvious on the new album: there's more strictly melancholic, post-rock-like compositions that should appeal to those who seek this feeling of ethereal sadness in the heavy, guitar music. However, this doesn't mean that the post-hardcore elements are completely forgotten, quite the opposite in fact, they still appear in the compositions. They do so from time to time, making the effect even more striking: when you hear the desperate screams, you know that this is an important, monumental moment and you should pay attention (as it is in À l'aube; prêchant la mauvaise nouvelle).

This track, the title of which translates to "At dawn; preaching the bad news", is a good example of how poignant the shouted lyrics are ("On each of us/ The noose is tightening/ The very essence/ Of great sadness") and how well they cooperate with the pure guitar melancholia (and with the vocals in À l'aube; nous sommes disparus provided by the Swedish jazz singer, Erika Angell).

À l'aube costs 7 EUR (10 CAD).

Milanku - Monument du non​-​être & Mouvement du non​-​vivant (2018)

Check: À l'aube; nous sommes disparus

Country: Quebec, Canada

Genre: melancholic post-hardcore

Label: Folivora Records

:bandcamp:

:facebook:

:instagram:

:youtube:

:spotify:

Elita - Dysania (2023)

Elita is a project led by Emma Harvey (also known as Elita Harkov) that combines modern, attractive electronica with heavy dream pop influences. The first album under this moniker, Dysania, was released back in March via Opposition.

The album is called after a condition that is defined as "a state of finding it hard to get out of bed in the morning" but unlike people who deal with it, the music here is fairly energetic. Elita joins the club of cute and creepy young artists who are painfully honest in what they do and who create music that is as atmospheric as it is catchy. But while some of them are all about glitchy experiments (like Yeule), here the music is pretty traditional: it's all about catchy melodies with synthy backgrounds and occasional sample that makes it even tastier. The level of catchiness in Elita's compositions is truly remarkable. Even ballads (like Summer Song) stay in your hand for a long time. Oh, right, and it's exceptionally steamy, from the beginning to the end.

Dysania costs 7 USD.

Check: Mentally Not Here

Country: Canada

Genre: dreamy electronic pop

Label: Opposition

:bandcamp:

:instagram:

:youtube:

:spotify:

Softcult - See You in the Dark (2023)

Mercedes and Phoenix Arn-Horn make music as Softcult. The Ontario-based artists haven't released a long-playing album yet, but See You in the Dark makes already their third EP. And it may well be the best one yet.

This is the kind of music that blends the energy and fun of indie rock with the expression of punk and the dreaminess of noise pop. Everything is very melodic, the pace is high and it makes you feel like dancing. Songs like Dress are real bangers that could be in the repertoire of the biggest indie rock bands. But there is also a hint of melancholia, some sadness in the compositions' dispersed vocals and hazey backgrounds. And the further the album goes, the more striking it is. The final songs are pure guitar haze with delicate vocals put on top: a music to feel and to shed a tear to (Love Song is sooo beautiful).

See You in the Dark costs 6 USD.

Check: Love Song 

Country: Canada

Genre: noise pop

Label: Easy Life Records

:bandcamp:

:facebook:
:official:

:instagram:

:soundcloud:

:youtube:

:spotify:

Ben Haskins - Chimera Wakes (2023)

I'm a big fan of Ben Haskins' music. As you could notice, the artists releases at least one album every year recently and I just have to post about it. This year's Chimera Wakes is no exception as the album's bright magenta colors invite the audience into the mesmerizing post-rock music world from Canada. 

The main thing about Haskins' music is the fantastic flow that carries the instrumental compositions. It comes from the synthy backgrounds that everything here is based on: it's so beautiful in places like Under where the whole thing: the synths, the guitars and the keys come together into one, lively and exciting but also soothing and beautiful soundscape. And it's not the only one here: in fact, this is the main characteristic of the whole thing. The album sucks you in, mesmerizes you and then leaves you with an impression that it finished so quickly and almost no time has passed. 

Chimera Wakes costs 5 EUR (7 CAD).

Ben Haskins - Dinner Party (2022)

Ben Haskins - Oh Believers, Run! (2021)

Check: Under

Country: Canada

Genre: synthy post-rock

:bandcamp:

:facebook:

:instagram:

:youtube:

:spotify:

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.

:bandcamp:

:facebook:
:official:

:instagram:

:spotify:

Atsuko Chiba - Water, It Feels Like It's Growing (2023)

The Canadian band claim to "venturesomely cross genre-defining borders with a cohesive and hypnotic blend of post-rock, progressive rock, and krautrock, weaving together a rich sonic tapestry that subverts through offbeat songwriting". This blend of genres feels particularly impressive on their third album called Water, It Feels Like It's Growing.

The dense and steamy atmosphere is one that characterizes the band. Their music is very much guitar-oriented, often in a very prog rock way, but adds so much to their compositions. The very first thing is the use of vocals: there is a good range of various kinds of vocals, often with the use of backing vocals, making those heavy psychedelic rock vibes all over the album. These fun-fueled, colourful compositions have this energetic and engaging component accentuated very much. But the band's music can get more atmospheric, even dreamy, with Shook (I'm Often)'s oneiric vocals that fill out the spaces around the audience and Seeds' beautiful string sounds. The whole album sounds like it was taken from thee past when psychedelia and prog were more popular and I appreciate this kind of homage.

Water, It Feels Like It's Growing costs 9 EUR (9.99 CAD).

Check: Water, It Feels Like It's Growing

Country: Canada 

Genre: psychedelic prog rock

Label: Mothland

:bandcamp:

:facebook:

:instagram:

:soundcloud:

:youtube:

:spotify:

Nicole Dollanganger - Married in Mount Airy (2023)

I love what Nicole Bell does as Nicole Dollanganger. The Canadian artist for over a decade combines the violence- and love-centred poetry with ambient pop and this is a fantastic, although surprising at first, combination that works so well also on her seventh album to date, Married in Mount Airy.

Bell's child-like voice (and the overall image as well) heavily contrasts with the adult, often unsettling themes of what she sings about and this is something that makes the spine thrill when listening to her albums. Especially that, very much in the way country and folk music does it, the lyrics tell full-grown stories with many details that help the audience to find themselves within Bell's poetry. Amazing story-telling immersion capabilities. The minimalist music accompanying her vocals is equally disturbing: when the instruments sound like not exactly on tune, the whole message sounds distorted as well. But I especially like it when the vocals are complimented by the organ-like synth sounds, adding to how touching they are.

It's worth adding that the music on the album could also safely be described as dream pop, although the dreaminess here can be disputed, it's more nightmarish if anything. Still, the oneiric attributes are very much tangible and make the immersion even more complete. I feel like it's at its top in Nymphs Finding the Head of Orpheus, making it automatically my favourite track here.

Married in Mount Airy costs 7 USD.

Check: Nymphs Finding the Head of Orpheus

Country: Canada

Genre: gothic ambient pop

:bandcamp:

:facebook:

:instagram:

:spotify:

Anna Arrobas - Made to Touch (2022)

Anna Arrobas, a Montreal-based artist, creates some hauntingly beautiful ballads that reside somewhere within the experimental art pop genre. Together with her band, the Canadian released her first album last month and it's a real deal of the moody, 

The Opener in Heart of Stone makes a beautiful promise for this album to be as moody as it is emotional and, simply, beautiful. However, from my experience, many artists like opening their albums this way, as a sort of an ornament, and then proceed with more mainstream pop content. Not this time though, as Arrobas continues with her atmospheric, nearly ambient pop. She uses her soft voice, additionally dispersed in a very dream pop manner, to lead us through this nostalgic and gloomy art realm. There's no doubt that her slow-paced compositions are meant to be very much of the experimental nature. The accents are put on creating the eerie but also enchanting atmosphere, rather than being particularly catchy or melodic. 

In this way, it is very ambient pop-like, there's, however, more to the instrumental side of the project. There's both guitar and synthesizer sounds, not to mention a guest accordion from time to time, but the music is still far from being overwhelming. The subtle backgrounds make it clear that in this art pop, art is more important than pop. And no song is a better example of this than the spoken word-filled Vœu that closes the album.

Made to Touch costs 7.5 EUR (10 CAD).

Check: Vœu

Country: Canada

Genre: dreamy art pop

Label: Éditions Appærent

:bandcamp:

:facebook:

:instagram:

:spotify:

olim - Ursine (2022)

Olim, or Joe Caswell, creates his solo music to channel the complicated feelings that make up blackgaze and atmospheric black metal genres and produce the "soaring passages of epic post-black melodies that are simultaneously melancholy and uplifting". On his second album under this moniker, Ursine, those are particularly striking.

And it's absolutely obvious that Caswell knows what he does. The compositions here are atmospheric in every meaning of the world while still being pretty fast-paced. The music is overwhelming and monumental, taking no time to develop, but, instead, attacks the audience with the heavy and rhythmic sound from the very beginnings of the songs til the very ends. But, blackgaze-like, the music feels also extremely smooth and inviting. This makes it a perfect trance-like experience as it's really difficult to stop listening until the very end. Ultimately, this is an album that can be enjoyed by both black metal and shoegaze fans equally and I'm here for it.

Ursine costs 4.5 EUR (6 CAD).

Check: Light Crept in Where Once Was None

Country: Canada

Genre: atmospheric black metal

Label: Flowing Downward

:bandcamp:

:facebook:

:instagram:

:youtube:

Indoor Voices - Falling (2022)

 

Two years ago, Jonathan Relph appeared on this blog with his project, Indoor Voices', second album, Animal. This year, the Canadian artist is back with a new dose of dreamy and noisy pop music on his album called Falling.

Relph's music is filled with oneiric distractions and dreamy reverbs, the guitars are set to make the noise captivating and trance-inducing. And they are often left alone to do their job, as it is in The Way It Is. But the more pop-like fragments easily charm their way to our hearts with their catchy melodies and the overall swiftness of the music, my favourite song here, I Hide, is a good example of one that stays in your mind long after listening to the album. Even if it dies in a sudden avalanche of harsh noise. Within his music, vocals play an interesting role: they appear from time to time, but the lyrics are sparse, many phrases are repeated over and over again, making short but poignant statements. 

This dance between the noisy and avant-garde-sounding intermezzos and noise pop's beauty lasts throughout the album. Which is not long, but perhaps it makes the whole thing sounding more like one whole.

Falling costs 10 USD.

Indoor Voices - Animal (2020)

Check: I Hide

Country: Canada

Genre: noise pop

:bandcamp:

:facebook:

:instagram:

:spotify:

Slowly - Distance (2022)

It's Charlie Berger's third album already; three years after Reveal (and a year since his fantastic EP Reverse), the Canadian artist showed his new work called Distance and it's as noisy and delicate as you can imagine.

The album is obviously impacted by the social distance issues we had to globally deal with for some years now.  Berger, being clearly a very nice guy, says: "I hope these songs might somehow help bring me a little closer to everyone who hears them, even if just for a few moments. I like that idea. It gives me some nice, warm feelies". And this is exactly what we get from his music: the vocals and the unassuming but very fitting music combined feel simply intimate and warm. This is the dream pop we needed for the incoming autumn moths.

But the lyrics are not always very uplifting. More like there's always a certain dose of sadness and melancholia, as if there's no way of coming back to what we had before the pandemics. As in A Ghost: "Heard your voice/ From a distance/ Was it the wind/ Or just my memory?" But, to be honest, is there really any true answer to how to live now?

Distance costs 4.5 EUR (6 CAD).

Slowly - Reverse (2021)

Check: A Ghost

Country: Canada

Genre: dark dream pop

Label: Lossleader Records

:bandcamp:

:facebook:
:spotify:

Justin Wright - A Really Good Spot (2022)

The Quebec-based cellist and composer, Justin Wright, is here to "to push the boundaries of new classical and experimental indie music, and erase the lines between synthetic and acoustic sounds". While very ambitious goal, his music certainly is located on the border between the old and the new, and it's "A Really Good Spot".

The cello sounds here are the driving force of the lively soundscapes where there's tons of things going on: the piano keys, the strings, the electronica backgrounds. It works together in harmony, although more often than not, it is close to this kind of artistic chaos that  always brings something touching to life. Especially when Wright is joined by Thanya Iyer: together with her vocals, We're Still Here sounds especially free form-like and experimental. This all shows the artist's unique view on making music, the process of which ends up with this album being "a surrealist spectrum of methodology, where the techniques showcased may or may not be real, where the orchestration confidently reinforces the most haphazard nonsense elements, and where the playfulness occasionally steps aside for moments of somber clarity:.

A Really Good Spot costs 8.5 EUR (7 GBP).

Check: Hellbrunn Automatons

Country: Canada

Genre: cello-based 

Label: First Terrace Records/Beacon Sound

:bandcamp:

:facebook:
:official:

:instagram:

:spotify:

Ben Haskins - Dinner Party (2022)

I thoroughly enjoyed Ben Haskins' 2021 album Oh Believers, Run! and it seems that the Canadian artist is a real machine to make good post-rock releases, especially that he shows them very often: Dinner Party is already the second one this year. And it may as well be the best one yet.

Although this is a solo post-rock enterprise, the way Haskins generate the attention-grabbing atmosphere is one of the kind. His music is not very loud and noisy but it seduces the audience with the flow and easy-listening synth backgrounds making it sort of a post-rock trip-hop combination. This makes the album run like a mountain spring, even if it's not the fastest music either. The album is structured like the title's party - it starts with a promising aperitif goes through the main course and everything a (Victorian?) fancy dinner should involve. And what it really shouldn't. The most important thing is though that no guest will leave it unsatisfied, that's for sure.

Dinner Party costs 5.5 EUR (7 CAD).

Ben Haskins - Oh Believers, Run! (2021)

Check: The Main Course

Country: Canada

Genre: synthy post-rock

:bandcamp:

:facebook:

:instagram:

:youtube:

:spotify:

Crystal Eyes - The Sweetness Restored (2022)

Five years after their debuting album The Female Imagination, the Canadian Crystal Eyes are back with another super catchy and dreamy release. The Sweetness Restored makes me think of Pia Fraus and other bands that marry the oneiric with the fun.

The band says it's a "feel-good self-help record for the age of existential dread" and that fits nicely with the twee pop kind of indie music that fills the release. The music is certainly not overwhelming, the guitars are subtle and give the way to the bass lines and its melodies. I love that the compositions here blend in various super weird instruments, including "the Hammond C3 with Leslie speakers, a string quartet, a choir, an out-of-tune piano, analogue synthesizers" and more. This adds some of the psychedelic chaos to the tracks (as in I Still Believe in Love for example). But in the end, it is mostly the background for the beautiful, dispersed vocals that are both melancholic and filled with sunshine.

The Sweetness Restored costs 8 EUR (10 CAD).

Check: I Still Believe in Love

Country: Canada

Genre: psychedelic indie pop

Label: Bobo Integral Records

:bandcamp:

:facebook:
:official:

:instagram:

:spotify:

Yoo Doo Right - A Murmur, Boundless to the East (2022)

The Montreal-based Yoo Doo Right were one of the biggest gigs during this year's dunk!festival. Live they present a loud and exciting volcano of emotions but on their albums their music feels more nuanced and artistically complex. A year after their fantastic debut on Don't Think You Can Escape Your Purpose, they released at least as good followup in the form of A Murmur, Boundless to the East.

And accordingly, they describe their own sound as a concoction of numerous genres that in the end results in "crafting a unique sound that could be described as a >>car crash in slow motion<<". Such a fitting summary and I can totally see it: many different elements everywhere, not-too-fast tempo and the feeling of overwhelming energy. This is their music all right. Probably the best way to simplify it is labeling the music as psychedelic post-rock. On one hand the complicated structures of the compositions as well as the very psychedelic rock-specific vocals, on the other the guitar passages that grow and grow in a tension-building way (so great in SMB) that leave no one unsatisfied. 

The two worlds are iconically combined in the album-finishing Feet Together, Face Up, on the Front Lawn, a psychedelic rock anthem sung in short phrases that ends with mind-blowing guitar heaviness.

A Murmur, Boundless to the East costs 7.5 EUR (9.99 CAD).

yoo doo right - Don't Think You Can Escape Your Purpose (2021)

Check: Feet Together, Face Up, on the Front Lawn

Country: Canada

Genre: psychedelic post-rock

Label: Mothland

:bandcamp:

:facebook:

:instagram:

:youtube:

:spotify: