The Lions Constellation - New Moon Rising (2025)

This year I already posted about ARIMA, melodic and noisy guitar rock music from Spain, but not really as they are from the Basque Country. Now I have The Lions Constellation, melodic and noisy guitar music from Spain, but not really as they are from Catalonia. It took 15 years (!) for the band to release their second album, but I'm gonna call it: it was really worth it.

I love shoegaze music that can impress with the noisy side and the catchy side as well. When listen to this album, released last autumn (I still haven't caught up with the new year releases!), I can hear exactly this. Take Allison for example: obviously the first thing I checked was if it was a cover, but no: and instead of focusing on the other Allison's hazy atmosphere, it presents a fantastic melody and catchy flow that makes it closer to the third Allison, the one from The Kills. It's a banger and still isn't my favourite one here.

The very shoegaze-like atmosphere is, on the other, the main focus in some spaces too, especially in When You Dream, which HAS TO be a reference to When You Sleep, right? Same vibes. But the melodic, hit-heavy shoegaze generally overshadows anything else on the album with A Long Life Is Not a Real Life being my favourite song here as it features my beloved way of using guitars in noisy music genres.

New Moon Rising costs 9 USD.

Check: A Long Life Is Not a Real Life

Country: Catalonia/Spain

Genre: catchy shoegaze

Label: Shelflife

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Sugar for the Pill - LUV (2025)

I've seen Sugar for the Pill this year at Automatic Noise in Amsterdam in January and it was one of the highlights of the festivals. The band with probably the least difficult inspiration to decipher in the world, released their sophomore album last month and showed why this was the case.

Good shoegaze can be found anywhere in the world. I'm not very familiar with the Greek scene, but Sugar for the Pill is an outfit that proves this thought. Led by the airy vocals and light melodies, the band released a beautiful collection of songs that are as ethereal as they are melodic. A selection of certain hits for every (other) Slowdive lover. This ability to marry the airy and the catchy is what draws me to their music and songs like Anelia, Komorebi and, especially, Colours prove it over and over again. 

The album offers no break from the melodic, fast-paced music that, maybe because of the album title and the overall visual setting, feels... cute. Light and carefree, dreamy like a dream you don't want to wake up from. And one that, when it's finally over, makes you immediately miss it. 

LUV costs 10 EUR.

Check: Colours 

Country: Greece

Genre: catchy shoegaze

Label: Make Me Happy Records/Shelflife Records

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Oceans - Dreamers in Dark Cities (2023)

The Australian Oceans, who are known for "fusing various genres together to create unique sonic landscapes inspired by ambient, new wave and 90s shoegaze", have appeared on my blog already when in 2022 they were part of the split release with the British band Wilt. And finally, they managed to release their debut album this year with Dreamers in Dark Cities being a fantastic take on the melodic shoegaze music.

This is the kind of music that fills a need for the atmospheric blessing and the melodic energy. The compositions are very much based on the distinct bass line that can be particularly fast while the heavy, fuzzy guitars around it give slower, more monumental vibes. This is, traditionally one can say, balanced by very ethereal and dreamy double, male and female, vocals (sometimes more uniquely sounding like in parts of Feels Like You, but usually following the genre's style guides). This balance is usually tilted in favour of the lighter, more melodic side of the project and it feels right for the band, although I'd be curious to hear them in heavier, more shoegazey compositions too (like in the final track of the album).

Dreamers in Dark Cities costs 7 USD.

Wilt & Oceans - Wilt (2022)

Check: Feels Like You

Country: Australia

Genre: atmospheric noise pop

Label: Shelflife

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Velveteen - Empty Crush (2022)

Velveteen are from London and they have been releasing their music for some time now (Rate Your Music says it's been 10 years, but I'm not sure it's true), but this is, as far as I know, their first LP. And Empty Crush is a perfectly nostalgic piece of noisy compositions that gave me this "I was born in a wrong generation" kind of feeling.

They describe their music as "a sound that's as much a love letter to their inspirations as it is their own" with said inspiration taken from shoegaze, post-punk, dream pop and noise rock. The first track of the album clearly confirms it with the particularly noisy guitars leading the first notes of the release. When they make way to the dispersed vocals, the sound is almost a perfect homage to the shoegaze legends from the 90s, especially My Bloody Valentine (for the guitars) and RIDE (vocals). The nostalgia for those times and the way it inspired the new band is clearly the strongest aspect of the album. Tracks like Entwined and Sunborn perfectly show this and it's barely comprehensible that they were not, in fact, released 30 years ago.

Empty Crush costs 7 USD.

Check: Entwined 

Country: UK

Genre: old-school shoegaze

Label: Shelflife

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Wilt & Oceans - Wilt (2022)

Wilt are from Manchester, Oceans from Melbourne, but despite this obvious challenge as well as the pandemics' difficult reality, they manage to successfully finish their collaboration with a brilliant EP called Wilt. Which is especially impressive as it's the British outfit's debut release.

The three artists of Wilt dealt with music while Thomas Lee and Mayzie Cocco Wallen of Oceans are responsible for the dreamy vocals here. The results are extremely airy and utterly dreamy. The heavy guitars create a multidimensional space within which the listener is closed but can only appreciate this fact while the music rocks around them. It is a mesmerizing blend of heavy guitars and ethereal atmosphere. The latter is obviously very much dependent on the vocals and the vocalized backgrounds. It really makes me think of White Flowers and their sound - the vocals are what dream pop is meant for but there's also place for fresh and juicy stuff. It's probably best audible in my personal favourite, Blank Field, a beautiful song in which all the elements work: heaviness, ethereality and catchiness.

Wilt costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: Blank Field

Country: UK/Australia

Genre: dreamy shoegaze

Label: Shelflife Records

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Lavender Blush - The Garden of Inescapable Pleasure (2020) EN

The Californian band Lavender Blush since its beginning in 2016 managed to release some material but the new album, The Garden of Inescapable Pleasure, is what they call their long play debut.

As they are accustomed to, the album was produced by them at home and this is one of the pillars of their music. After all, they describe their own music as "noise pop group devoted to home recording, atmospherics, and analog warmth". The DIY factor clearly adds to the overall atmosphere of this noise pop release that draws from everything that's situated between bedroom pop and shoegaze. And the dominant slowcore pace makes the guitar sound in a monumental way.

The album is opened by the catchiest track I'm in Love, but this is being catchy in a Slowdive or Spiritualized way - more likely an atmospheric music than pop enthusiasm    . And it works. Sometimes the artists can get louder and so the final of Piper is made of very rock guitars in post-rocking climate. But it's always balanced by the vocals - dispersed and  heavenly. As a good dream pop should.

The Garden of Inescapable Pleasure costs 7 USD.

Check: I'm in Love

Country: California, US

Genre: bedroom noise pop

Label: Shelflife

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Lavender Blush - The Garden of Inescapable Pleasure (2020) PL

Kalifornijski zespół Lavender Blush od swojego powstania w 2016 roku zdążył wydać już trochę materiału, ale swój nowy album The Garden of Inescapable Pleasure sami określają jako długogrający debiut. 

Tak jak mają w zwyczaju, nowa płyta powstała własnym sumptem w domowych warunkach, co jest jednym z filarów ich poglądu na muzykę. W końcu sami o sobie piszą "grupa noise popowa oddana domowym nagraniom, atmosferze i analogowemu ciepłu". Faktor DIY na pewno składa się na atmosferę panującą na tym noise popowym wydawnictwie czerpiącym garściami z wszystkiego, co pomiędzy bedroom popem a shoegaze'em. A do tego przeważa slowcore'owe tempo. co pozwala gitarom nabrać monumentalnej wagi.

Album otwiera najbardziej przebojowa kompozycja I'm in Love, ale jest to przebojowość w stylu Slowdive czy Spiritualized - bardziej nastrojowe granie niż popowy entuzjazm. I to gra. Czasem też muzycy potrafią pohałasować i taki finał Piper to bardzo rockowe gitary w post-rockującym klimacie. Zawsze jednak wszystko równoważy wokal - rozmyty i niebiański. Tak jak przystało na dobry dream pop.

The Garden of Inescapable Pleasure kosztuje 26 złotych (7 USD).

Sprawdź: I'm in Love

Kraj: Kalifornia, US

Szufladka: bedroom noise pop

Label: Shelflife

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Mumrunner - Valeriana (2020) EN

Finally, the Finish hope of dream pop, Mumrunner from Tampere released their debut long play. Although they built their name already with the Gentle Slopes EP, it's only now that we can admire their admire to the Estonian Pia Fraus in a longer form on Valeriana.

The Scandinavians play unpretensious dream pop which means the melody and joy of twee pop juxtaposed with the airiness and guitar-saturation of shoegazing rock. So it's very atmospheric, which is greatly helped by the omnipresent backing vocals, but also pugnacious and charming. And very catchy, the band themselves suggest that this is their strongest side saying that they"have always been eager to write memorable melodies, and we are able to show even stronger and fuller melody lines".

Since their beginnings, the band's line-up changed a lot. And although my favourite song by Mumrunner still is the years old Gentle Slopes, it's bravely contested now by such hits as Foe, Easy Life, Transient or instrumental Valeriana. If the quarantine is ever going to end, they will be one of my main gigs to catch somewhere in Europe.

Valeriana costs 7 USD.

Check: Foe

Country: Finland

Genre: melodic dream pop
Label: Shelflife Records

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Mumrunner - Valeriana (2020) PL

W końcu jest, fińska nadzieja dream popu, Mumrunner z Tampere nareszcie wydał swój debiutancki długogrający krążek. Chociaż swoją renomę zbudował już EP-ką Gentle Slopes, teraz możemy podziwiać ich odpowiedź na estońską Pia Fraus w dłuższej formie na płycie Valeriana.

Skandynawowie grają bezpretensjonalny dream pop, oznacza to melodyjność i radość z grania rodem z twee popu, zestawione z eterycznością i gitarowym nasyceniem shoegaze'ującego rocka. Jest więc niezwykle atmosferycznie, o co dbają niezliczone chórki, ale też zadziornie i ujmująco. No i przebojowo, sam zespół sugeruje, że to jest ich najsilniejszą bronią pisząc, że "zawsze byli skłonni pisać zapadające w pamięć melodie a teraz potrafią pokazać jeszcze mocniejsze i pełniejsze linie melodyczne".

Zespół od momentu, gdy zaistniał na scenie zmienił się personalnie Co prawda wciąż moim ulubionym kawałkiem jest Gentle Slopes sprzed lat, ale dzielnie walczą z nim takie piosenki jak Foe, Easy Life, Transient czy instrumentalna Valeriana. Jeśli kwarantanna kiedyś się skończy, Mumrunner będzie dla mnie jedną z głównych pozycji do przydybania na koncercie gdzieś w Europie.

Valeriana kosztuje 30 złotych (7 USD).

Sprawdź: Foe

Kraj: Finlandia

Szufladka: melodic dream pop
Label: Shelflife Records

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