Arches - 4 (2026)

So it seems that this blog can hardly exist without some fantastic discovery from Hong Kong these days. After David Boring and Lucid Express, it's time for the debut album (of course titled 4, duh!) album from the young people of Arches. Dream pop, shoegaze and some very East Asian vibes make some great work here.

The band plays with the whispering vocals and noisy guitars balance so well, I can't believe this is only their first LP. And by writing whispering, I really mean it. It's not a slightly dreamy pop vocal, it's very dream pop-like... yeah, whispering. I love it. And somehow the vocals don't get overwhelmed by the energetic guitars (even if they are not particularly wall-of-sound-esque, they can be pretty loud). But coming back to the silence/noise juxtaposition, I love when a band stops the guitar machine suddenly so the silence sounds more poignantly and, in a very Nothing-esque way, Arches do that a lot, Drowning or Hate are great examples on 4.

4 costs 9 USD.

Check: Drowning

Country: Hong Kong

Genre: dreamy shoegaze

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Lucid Express - Instant Comfort (2026)

Yes, this is already the second project in the last weeks on my blog and I'm very happy about it as Lucid Express came back with another oneiric album. Following the 2021 self-titled debut, the artists who refer to themselves simply as "five dreamers", created a new set of immersive, densely noisy compositions for us to day dream to.

Lucid Express' shoegaze brings all of the sweet classic vibes of the noisy pop music. The fuzzing guitar layers making the audience drown in the sound; the sweet and melodic vocals (Setback!), often catchingly vocalizing (such a fun in Something Blue!); the slightly melancholic lyrics. I won't enlist all of the 90s bands the new album reminds me of because everyone can imagine this, I'll only say that Instant Comfort if made back then would most certainly get included into the shoegaze classics. 

Already present on the HK's music scene for over a decade, Lucid Express maintain the atmosphere of late night (or early morning) rehearsals that shaped their works at the beginning, which results in relaxed-paced, fuzzy (and in some places REALLY fuzzy, check out Aster) that ultimately results in the title song that closes the album and that, on the fuzziness scale, is located far towards the My Bloody Valentine end.

Instant Comfort costs 9 USD.

Check: Instant Comfort

Country: Hong Kong

Genre: classic shoegaze

Label: Kanine Records

Lucid Express - Floret (2022)

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David Boring - Liminal Beings and Their Echoes (2026)

Post-punk so energetic that makes you move uncontrollably and so catchy that could almost be heard on a radio? And coming from such an exotic place (from my perspective) as Hong Kong? BANGER! I'm so glad I discovered the exciting weirdness of David Boring just in time to feature their sophomore album on the blog.

It's not like the whole almost an hour long album is filled with adrenaline-fueling high-pulse music. Surprisingly, when you focus on this, most of the album is about the moody and intriguing parts that are slower but equally satisfying. But when the whole thing ends, you remember the moments that make you jump like crazy. In fact, the latter wouldn't really work without the former. I love the changes of pace between dark and moody Jenny Rotten, fantastically catchy Earth Song and the ballad in Visit Me (Cabin Song). So we have the dark, the catchy and the moody. And the whole album can be described in this way. Like going in and out of the best disco of your life.

There is also an element of the wild and angry noise somewhere there which makes the project on pair with noisy pop projects like Poppy but clearly more post-punk in origins than metal-adjacent. Anyway, I hear here also KOKOKO (again, in my favourite Earth Song) and a multitude of other influences and every one of them is amazing. And I haven't even mentioned the charisma-dripping vocalist who blends in with the genre changes effortlessly. Fantastic album.

Liminal Beings and Their Echoes costs 12 EUR (10 GBP). 

Check: Earth Song

Country: Hong Kong

Genre: dance punk

Label: Damnably/UN.TOMORROW

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Lucid Express - Floret (2022)

From the far away land of Hong Kong, "young dreamers creating a stunningly airy blend of shoegaze and indie pop", known as Lucid Express, hail. They have recently released their second album, following the really good debuting self-titled one, and called it Floret.

The five artists are devoted to creating soft and dreamy pop music that strikes with their slow pace and moody atmosphere. There's a decent amount of noise accompanying the guitar, not overwhelming, melodies and the withdrawn, very much dispersed female vocals. So everything we love in dream pop music. The album is actually a four-tracks-long EP but it is enriched with another five remixes and, I must say, it does feel like one whole album. Perhaps it's because the listener does not focus on separate songs that much as the whole album offers a blissful, dreamy experience. It's very well audible in Venture, where the music and the vocals reach this psychedelic, dreamy state of trance-like sound that last up to the end of the "EP" part of the album.

Floret costs 6.99 USD.

Check: Venture

Country: Hong Kong

Genre: dream pop

Label: Kanine Records

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Voyage in Solitude - Through the Mist with Courage and Sorrow (2020) EN

Derrick Lin is back on my blog with his project Voyage in Solitude after two years with his new album called Through the Mist with Courage and Sorrow. As always, he invites his audience to the loud and dark world of solo post-metal and a visit like this is always pure joy.

His project is devoted to expressing the feelings of "loneliness, helplessness, frustration of people in the city (he is) living in". However, on the new album, there's a lot of sounds suggesting some hope and its elevated nature as well as courage that is even mentioned in the album's title. It's well audible in Dark Mist, a track with some ecstatic guitars and strings and with depression-filled vocals. Still, the album is ruled by post-metal sounds - raw and dark guitars, automatic drums, this whole metal aggressive vibe toned down and slightly covered by the ethereal.

Another thing are samples with spoken word in the mesmerizing Incoming Transmission, absolutely tear-jerking noise in Memories or the album's finish in almost a ballad-like In Between. A lot of good stuff here and by good I mean beautifully noisy.

Through the Mist with Courage and Sorrow costs 6.99 USD.

Voyage In Solitude - Last Train From The Hill EP (2018) EN

Check: Memories 

Country: Hong Kong

Genre: blackgaze post-metal

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Voyage in Solitude - Through the Mist with Courage and Sorrow (2020) PL

Derrick Lin i jego projekt Voyage in Solitude wraca po dwóch latach na mojego bloga wraz z nową płytą Through the Mist with Courage and Sorrow. Jak zawsze zaprasza on na niej do głośnego i mrocznego świata solowego post-metalu, a taka wizyta to zawsze przyjemność.

Jego projekt poświęcony jest przekazywaniu poczucia "samotności, niemocy i frustracji ludzi z miast, w którym żyje". Niemniej na nowym krążku dużo jest dźwięków świadczących raczej o nadziei i jej podniosłej naturze, a także o odwadze, o której pisze w tytule. Słychać to dobrze w Dark Mist, utworze z uskrzydlającymi gitarami i smyczkami i depresyjnym w brzmieniu wokalu. Niemniej na płycie królują post-metalowe dźwięki - surowe i mroczne gitary, automatyczna perkusja, cały ten metalowo agresywny vibe stonowany nieco i przysłonięty eterycznością.

Inną sprawą są sample z mówionym wokalem w hipnotyzującym Incoming Transmission albo wzruszający do cna hałas w Memories czy zamykająca album niemalże ballada In Between. Dużo dobrego, a przez dobrego mam na myśli pięknie hałaśliwego, na tej płycie.

Through the Mist with Courage and Sorrow kosztuje 28 złotych (6,99 USD).

Voyage In Solitude - Last Train From The Hill EP (2018) PL

Sprawdź: Memories 

Kraj: Hong Kong

Szufladka: blackgaze post-metal

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Voyage In Solitude - Last Train From The Hill EP (2018) EN

Voyage In Solitude is a one-man project by Derrick Lin, a musician from Hong Kong, that was created to "express the loneliness, helplessness, frustration" of people in this city. It is well matched with Lin's slow and loud guitar shoegaze. You can taste it on the artist's debut EP.

In Voyage In Solitude's music you can hardly find any entertaining melodies, the shoegaze here is dark and dense like a sea of magma with the fittingly peaceful but also poignant vocal. The raw guitars create the atmosphere of uncertainty and danger, no wonder Lin states that apart from shoegaze, the genres that inspired him most included post-rock and an atmospheric black metal (which is heard clearly in the dark "Abyss" with its black metal drums).

The artist knows a lot of tricks to create the dark atmosphere. Another one is the use of gloomy samples of spoken word in "Ticket to the Overworld" that balances between a peaceful music of hopelessness and elevated guitar choruses. This soundscape depicts well the whole, emotional and dark album by Lin.

"Last Train From The Hill" costs 4 USD.

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Voyage In Solitude - Last Train From The Hill EP (2018) PL

Voyage In Solitude to projekt Derricka Lina, muzyka z Hong Kongu, który powstał by "wyrazić samotność, bezradność i frustrację" ludzi tam żyjących. Dobrze nadaje się do tego powolny i głośny gitarowy shoegaze Lina. Można go zakosztować na debiutanckiej EP-ce artysty.

W muzyce Voyage In Solitude próżno szukać rozrywkowych melodii, tutaj shoegaze jest mroczny i gęsty niczym morze lawy, do którego dopasowuje się spokojny ale również dobitny wokal. Surowe gitary dbają o nastrój niepewności i zagrożenia, nic dziwnego, że Lin przyznaje, że obok shoegaze'u inspirował go też post-rock oraz atmosferyczny black metal (słychać to przede wszystkim w mrocznym "Abyss" z jego blackmetalową perkusją).

Artysta ma sporo asów w rękawie jeśli chodzi o umiejętność tworzenia mrocznej atmosfery. Kolejnym z nich są ponure w wymowie sample z mówionym słowem słyszalne w "Ticket to the Overworld", które balansuje między spokojną muzyką beznadziei a podniosłymi, gitarowymi refrenami. Taka sceneria dobrze obrazuje cały, bogaty w emocje, mroczny album Lina.

"Last Train From The Hill" kosztuje 15 złotych (4 USD).

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WhyOceans - Inmost Dens Of Emilie (2017) EN

Musical tear-jerker.  creating tear waterfalls and sobbing under a blanket. Beautiful and sad, this is WhyOceans from the exotic Macao. "Inmost Dens Of Emilie" is their second album, an album that is complex, well written and basically complete. Not a surprise as the band plays together for over 10 years now.

Already the violin based intro draws attention of the trembling heart. But wait until the musicians proceed to the main dishes! The album tells six different stories and this is where our imagination is supposed to do its job. The stories have to be sad and beautiful, two of them are about the Emilie from the album's title, the rest can be, why not, about us. The stories are told by strings and keys and, obviously, the whole post-rock spectre of instruments. This is the music that is usually called cinematic and we should agree with that claim without any doubt.

An interesting thing is the name of the band's bass player, Gabriel Stańczyk. I wonder what's the story of this Polish-like name in the distant Macao.

"Inmost Dens Of Emilie" is available for 6 USD.

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WhyOceans - Inmost Dens Of Emilie (2017) PL

Muzyczny wyciskacz łez. Powodujący kaskady łez i pochlipywanie pod kocem. Piękni i smutni, tacy są WhyOceans, muzycy z egzotycznego Macao. "Inmost Dens Of Emilie" to ich druga płyta, płyta dojrzała, mądrze skomponowana i w zasadzie kompletna. Nic dziwnego, bo zespół gra ze sobą już od ponad dziesięciu lat.

Już wygrane na skrzypkach intro przykuwa uwagę rozedrganego serca. A co dopiero, gdy muzycy przechodzą do dań głównych! Album ma opowiadać sześć osobnych historii i tutaj wyobraźnia rusza do przodu. Historie muszą być smutne i piękne, dwie z nich opowiadają o tytułowej Emilie, reszta może, czemu nie, być o nas. Historie opowiedziane są przez smyczki i klawisze i naturalnie całą post-rockową sekcję gitarową, na taką muzykę chętnie mówi się muzyka kinowa i trzeba się z tym z całym przekonaniem zgodzić.

Ciekawostką jest z pewnością nazwisko basisty, Gabriela Stańczyka. Ciekawe jaka historia kryje się za polsko-brzmiącym mianem w dalekim Macao.

"Inmost Dens Of Emilie" można mieć za 23 złote (6 USD).

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