Allison Lorenzen - Tender (2021)

The Colorado-based artist Allison Lorenzen is better known as half of the School Dance duo, but this November she launched her solo career with an album called Tender. And just like the title suggests, she gave up her band's darkwave for a gentler and cosier pop tunes.

The album is filled with slowcore/art pop compositions that borrow something from the post-punk and synthwave genres, but the balance surely is tilted towards the warmth of dreamy pop. The compositions are usually strongly based on the moody and never-hurried piano keys and Lorenzen's soft but haunting vocals. This results in an extremely intimate and reflection-fuelling experience that is only deepened by what is going on in the backgrounds. This is the realm of the subtlest guitar noise (so touching in Afterthought!) and ethereal backing vocals, taking what's best from the noise pop and dream pop's catalogue. 

She's not alone in this either; the album features help by her fellow slowcore/ambient pop star Madeline Johnston a.k.a. Midwife (especially well-provided in the single track Vale) as well as Daniel Patrick Henry, better known as Memory Tapes. The music's intimate sadness is not a coincidence here. The whole album is very much focused on the problems of the heart, the emotional changes one has to go through, as Lorenzen is said to be "nursing old wounds from the end of a relationship and her musical project School Dance" and dealing with those in the form of music. And this is something that can be felt on the album particularly well.

Tender costs 7 USD.

Check: Vale

Country: Colorado, US

Genre: piano-based ambient pop

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Offthesky & The Humble Bee - We Were the Hum of Dreams (2020) EN

The collaboration between offthesky and The Humble Bee, but also together with Rin Howell on the vocals and Cody Yantis on the sax, is already a second offence since the artists met already a year ago on the album All Other Voices Gone, Only Yours Remains. And it's such a good news as We Were the Hum of Dreams may be even better.

This mixture of ballad pop and instrumental ambient, impro, free jazz and everything that's experimental and atmosphere-filled just do the work. And does it so well. Howell, vocals are delicate and sad and also not super melodic which adds up to the uniqueness of the project. The coexistence of instruments and fantastic ambient in the backgrounds (Brittle Arc of a Nightmark, Little Shard of a Daymark or my personal favourite In the Last Light, We Were a Whisper!) makes the imagination run and works in such a way that you can listen to the album many times and still find something new. 

We Were the Hum of Dreams costs 6 EUR.

Check: In the Last Light, We Were a Whisper

Country: Colorado, US

Genre: instrumental ambient pop
Label: Laaps

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Lessons from the Dreamtime - Seven Stars & Orion (2020) EN

Lessons from the Dreamtime is the stage alter ego of Jesse Maddox who in this ways tries to conduct an "experiment in neo-classical, post-industrial texture, studio manipulation, and world music". Its results are published on her fourth album since 2019 (!) called Seven Stars & Orion.

The album is supposed to "focus on distinct harmony and melody combined with a more approachable instrumentaton", its creation was aided by the work of multi-instrumentalist Thomas Rowell who broadened the instruments spectre and so the depth of the music itself. Those instruments appearing on the album include sad strings, touching piano keys and this whole neoclassical soul.

On the other hand, the album is also able to surprise with the deeply electronic composition powered by the heavy beats in Maia that make the turning point of the album towards the second half's space-ambient and dark electronic vibes while the two worlds collide in the epic Taygete and the finish in Orion. The album is impressive in its complexity and, above all, creates an attractive, cosmic atmosphere.

Seven Stars & Orion costs 7.99 USD.

Check: Asterope

Country: Colorado, US

Genre: electronic neoclassicism
Label: Fluttery Records

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Lief Sjostrom - Boyish Dreams of Heroic Deeds (2019) EN

Lief Sjostrom, Denver-based cellist has appeared on the blog already and he's back and it's no wonder as I really dig his approach to neoclassical music. Now you can listen to it on his EP called Boyish Dreams of Heroic Deeds.

As could have been guessed, the album is based on cello's sounds but at least equally important are the looping effects transforming short phrases into whole backgrounds. Of course, it's nothing new, Julia Kent is a mistress here, but Sjostrom uses this effect in a particularly interesting way. Another characteristic of his music is the way he uses electric guitar that adds to the whole thing's character and dark atmosphere at the same time. That's why the album sounds in some places like a neoclassical soundtrack to some intriguing movie, in other, like excerpts from a discography of a post-rock band, especially in the noise-dirty Light Pollution.

Boyish Dreams of Heroic Deeds costs 6 USD.

Lief Sjostrom - The Longest Night (2018) EN

Check: Light Pollution

Country: Colorado, US

Genre: post-rocking neoclassicism

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offthesky - Fallow (2019) EN

Another great release from the DRONARIVM label. This is Jason Corder's project filled with ambient soundscapes on its new album Fallow.

"The songs herein are an ode to the still beauty of forgotten light, the smell of dust-covered memory, and time-stained fragments of abandoned space at the edge of winters past". Quite a mouthful. They create a dusty, peacefully electronic soundscape comprising of raw sounds of strings making your neck thrill, soft and warm electronics and tons of talent to write sad and at the same time soothing compositions. Just like the beautiful Slow Let Go or Fallow, the only one with extremely airy vocal.

Fallow costs 7 EUR.

Check: Fallow

Country: Colorado, US

Genre: ambient soundscape

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Sidewave - Ultraviolet (2019) EN

They say that they play space rock and that they put some new spirit into this veteran genre. The Americans of Sidewave make their music for six years already and have just released their fourth album. Ultraviolet is worth looking a little closer.

The musicians manoeuvre between the extremes of shoegaze - their heavy guitars are particularly heavy and almost stoner-like aggressive and rough while the soft vocals are super soft and delicate. And they approach the whole thing with serious grandeur, just listen to the great In Sadness and try not to shiver when the bass-like drums start to sound in the background. It's also worth saying that Sidewave's tracks are engaging as well very airy hits, and yes, they deserve this title.

It doesn't even matter that right in the middle of the album, at the end of 100k, there's a couple of minutes of misplaced noise, the Americans soon come back to what they do best. And they do that in Vehement and in Can't Be Bad with great style.

Ultraviolet costs 5 USD.

Check: In Sadness 

Country: Colorado, US

Genre: heavy shoegaze

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Lief Sjostrom - The Longest Night (2018) EN

Lief Sjostrom is "a cellist, guitarist, composer, and teacher" from Colorado. This Christmas he released and album that perfectly, in my opinion, reflects the atmosphere of the long, cold night when the miracle was supposed to happen.

While I am not a fan of Christmas-themed concept album, I can't just miss this super dense ambiance of Sjostrom's short release. The Longest Night is made of six compositions played mostly on the cello with all of its richness with dark tones, melancholic bow and rhythm tapping on its body. The artist deals with more or less famous American carols with the most famous (at least in Europe) being Silent Night. This one is even more delicate and even darker than other mainstream versions.

And this is the way to perform Christmas carols I understand.

The Longest Night costs whatever you pay.

Check: Silent Night

Country: Colorado, US

Genre: christmas dark folk

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Autumn Creatures - Funeral Garden (2018) PL

Tak jak sugeruje to tytuł projektu, Autumn Creatures to muzyka dla jesiennych melancholików. Post-rockowy zespół wspomagany smyczkowym kwartetem stworzył płytę specjalnie dla nich, pełną gitarowego polotu i smutnych klawiszy. I zatytułował ją odpowiednio: "Funeral Garden".

Amerykanie z Colorado Springs celują w tworzenie gęstego, wypełniającego całe muzyczne spektrum klimatu. Głośne gitary nie pozostawiają najmniejszego skrawka wolnej przestrzeni i zajmują się zagłuszaniem myśli w prawdziwie doom metalowy sposób, podczas gdy klawisze nadają temu hałasowi trochę piękna. A poza tym jest jeszcze kwartet smyczkowy będący wszystkim, czego wymagam od jesiennej muzyki.

Do tego dochodzą jeszcze przesmutne sample z damskim wokalem mówiącym o depresji i stracie. Te brzmią najlepiej w "Death in Silent Places", utworze, który za nic ma sobie tradycyjne zakończenia i prowadzi do zaskakującego finału własnymi ścieżkami. Tym najbardziej ponurym kawałkiem jest natomiast "Mourn/Suffer", noise brzmiący jak szary, deszczowy dzień. Idzie jesień, pierwsza jesienna płyta już jest.

"Funeral Garden" kosztuje 26 złotych (7 USD).

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Autumn Creatures - Funeral Garden (2018) EN

Just like the project's name suggests, Autumn Creatures make music for autumn melancholics. Post-rock band supported with a string quartet created music especially for them, filled with guitar grandeur and sad keys. And entitled it as they were supposed to: "Funeral Garden".

Colorado Springs based Americans are all in for making thick atmosphere filling out the whole musical spectre. Loud guitars leave no free room for anything and deal with deafening down listeners' thoughts in a really doom-like way, while the keys bring some beauty to this noise. And there''s also the string quartet that is all I require from autumn music.

Another thing is the use of almost overly sad samples filled with female voice talking about depression and loss. They sound best in "Death in Silent Places", a tack that doesn't care about traditional song finishing styles and leads the way to the surprising end as it wants. The gloomiest track on the album though is "Mourn/Suffer", a noise sounding like a grey, rainy day. The autumn is coming but the first autumn album is already here.

"Funeral Garden" costs 7 USD.

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A Shoreline Dream - waitout EP (2018) EN

A Shoreline Dream is a band that needs little introduction. Making music for 12 years already, the Denver based trio should be known to every loud ear-burning shoegaze fan out there. This time, the band released an EP that binds the presence with the past.

"Waitout" consists of two new tracks and three that have been remastered: "Barnum" from a 2012 EP called "Three", New York" from "COASTAL" from 2007 and  "Projections" from "Avoiding the Consequences" released in 2006. All of the tracks are characterized by the band's typical sound - a homogeneous wall of sound that takes the audience's breath away and Ryan Policki's vocal shaping out somewhere under it. Especially in the first track, "Waitout", this combination makes those spacious sound the shoegaze fans love so much.

In more lively tracks, like in "In The Ready Sound", the band can build up engaging melodies that are impossible not to hum. There's a visible difference between the new and the old tracks and even the remastering process couldn't erase that but still, a very solid album.

"waitout" costs 5 USD.

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A Shoreline Dream - waitout EP (2018) PL

A Shoreline Dream to zespół, którego specjalnie przedstawiać nie trzeba. Działające już od 12 lat trio z Denver powinno być znane każdemu fanowi gęstego shoegaze'u, od którego płoną uszy. Tym razem zespół wydał EPkę, w której łączy przeszłość z teraźniejszością.

"Waitout" to dwa nowe kawałki i trzy remasterowane: "Barnum" z EP-ki z 2012 roku zatytułowanej "Three", New York" z "COASTAL" z 2007 roku i "Projections" z "Avoiding the Consequences" z 2006. Wszystkie charakteryzują się typowym dla zespołu brzmieniem - jednolitą ścianą dźwięku, która zapiera dech w piersiach oraz rysującym się na niej delikatnym wokalem Ryana Polickiego. Zwłaszcza w tytułowym "Waitout" to połączenie tworzy przestrzenie tak pożądane przez fanów dobrego shoegaze'u.

W bardziej przebojowych kawałkach, tak jak w "In The Ready Sound", zespół potrafi zbudować wciągające melodie, których nie sposób nie zacząć nucić. Między utworami nowymi a starymi słuchać różnice i nawet remastering nie poprawił ich jakości na tyle by prezentowały się równie dobrze, co nowe. Tak czy inaczej, ciekawa pozycja.

"waitout" kosztuje 19 złotych (5 USD).

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Spirettes - Spirettes EP (2017) EN

They say they play "Ethereal guitar-driven rock, supported by pop structures and sprinkled with myriad ghostly female vocals". Spirettes, all female band from Colorado, has just released an EP with a rock solid shoegazing rock music.

The artists established the band to express their creativity without any limits. They also tool with music that is happy to be catchy but, on the other hand, refers to the sensible layers in the audience. The pop catchiness is well noticeable when you start singing along with the Perdoni-Palmblad-Gould  trio starting from the very first "Old Friend". The band combines this catchiness with airy backing vocals and distorted main vocal. And with heavy playing guitars.

It gets really interesting in "Records" where the new element is added - screamed out chorus, a bit in the riot grrl way. This is the song that seems to have the most potential to appear on a radio as the listeners would gladly sing along: "it began / at the end / with flowers / at the funeral".

The album costs 3 USD.

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