Łabandzi Śpiew: dream pop

Richard Neale - EVES (2017)

środa, 27 maja 2026

Richard Neale - The Walls Fell (2026)

It's quite a story, while getting to write this piece, I thought of starting with saying that I hadn't heard such delicate vocals and music in a while but I checked my post on Richard Neale's 2017 album EVES and realized that it's EXACTLY what I wrote back then. And it's been almost a decade (sic!). This year, the dreamy and folky singer/songwriter from UK came back with his first longer album since... exactly 2017.

"Delicate" is an adjective you need to repeat over and over again when writing about The Walls Fell. I can hear this music as singer/songwriter acoustic guitar lyrical solo venture or a folky, nature-centred, forest-longing cry for escape, but ultimately it is all overshadowed by the utterly oneiric atmosphere that rules single-handedly on the album from the start to the final notes. The piano-based but very often built over with a range of other instruments compositions sound like coming from a dense fog in an English countryside in an early morning. And the vocals that join them are just... yes, delicate of course. Always but sometimes even more than that (King Blue!).

The album certainly feels like work of one man, although there are vocals by Karen Stally in some tracks too. But while usually I prefer a team effort in creating music, this time, it's just perfect. It gives me David Bramwell's Oddfellow's Casino (also south of England!) vibes, but even more foggy and sleepy. Love it.

The Walls Fell costs 11 EUR (9 GBP).

Check: King Blue

Country: UK

Genre: folky ambient pop

piątek, 22 maja 2026

TVAM - Ruins (2026)

Joe Oxley uses the moniker of TVAM to create a curious blend of electronica, post-punk and dreamy music that is also extremely catchy at the same time. On his third record Ruins, roughly half of the songs could easily become radio hits (if radios were any good these days), which is a fantastic recommendation to try this oneiric banger machine.

The darkwavey vibes, the post-punky vibes, the dream poppy vibes: everything is present on Ruins, Oxley clearly draws from various sources, having fun with concocting the perfect mixtures for music lovers. The Words Real Life, or my favourite Follow Me Home are the catchiest thing you can imagine. But at the same time, the album is meant to reflect the pain of grief and the "strange beauty that comes with it", a curious form of a disco music for dead inside, a dance setlist for lonely and lost. Follow Me Home is just the darkest thing you can lose yourself on the dancefloor to and I love it. In his own words, the artist's music refers to memories and fears of the audience which, for me, is a perfect explanation why dream pop and post-punk meet here.

Ruins costs 11 EUR (9 GBP).

Check: Follow Me Home

Country: UK

Genre: darkwave dreamy pop

Label: Invada Records

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Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys - Teen Tapes (for Performing Your Own Stunts) 2022

wtorek, 24 marca 2026

Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys - Pale Bloom (2026)

It's been already almost 10 years since Lucy Kruger started releasing albums with her band as Lucy Kruger & the Lost Boys and she proves that she has innumerable layers of artisticness and pure talent within herself. The albums are released so frequently one can lose track of Kruger's discography, but that's ok. I can assure you, they are only getting better and better.

The characteristic minimalism the artist nurtures evolves with every release, at least that's how I see it: it's not as rough and lone electric guitar-heavy, less of the dark blues vibe and more towards softer, dreamier art pop music. In some places even bordering with ambient pop's soundscape-y unintelligibleness of the backgrounds. It may be softer but it's certainly not much lighter: the darker shade of dreamy is the signature skill of Kruger's music and, first of all, lyrics which play the lead role in every song on this and any other release. And those can be extremely poignant and uneasy.

But the thing I love about this music is how effortlessly it combines the ethereally catchy parts with artsy, slightly less approachable in form, very often within one composition too. That's why Ambient Heat is definitely my favourite here: the short lyrical phrases that create a mosaic of fear and existential uncertainty contrast the beautifully executed chorus that contrasts the ambient pop formless parts. I could hardly not love this one.

Pale Bloom costs 9 EUR.

Check: Ambient Heat

Country: RSA/Germany

Genre: dreamy art rock

Label: Unique Records/Schubert Music

Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys - Transit Tapes (For Women Who Move Furniture Around) (2021)

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piątek, 20 marca 2026

Callière - Solar (2026)

Andrew Rose makes his music for ages now! His music alter ego came back in 2021 after a long hiatus and there's already 6 albums released as Callière. Solar, the final one, makes me think of the classic shoegaze artists as it is as dreamy as it could be while being a clearly offstream gazey project. No wonder that Rose has some interesting connections to Nick Noble of 93MillionMilesFromTheSun, one of my favourites within the sub-genre.

Rose's music is based on dreamy and dense backgrounds and very airy vocals. The important parts are the melodies: in fact, everything in this music is about extremely catchy melodies (sometimes drawing from the old pop song-like motifs as in Calling Claire from Clare) submerged in the oneiric atmosphere. The compositions are never loud, it's way more dream pop than shoegaze, especially that the backgrounds seem to be designed to creating the atmosphere rather than than to draw attention to themselves. It's the melodies that matter, even when they drown in the noisy music (in the beautiful cover of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart's Anne with an E).

This album is said to be inspired by the artist's "journeys along the Camino in northern Spain, where the landscapes and the quiet rhythm of long days on foot sparked a wave of new songwriting" and I can definitely sense this in the unhurried compositions that take their time to get through start to finish, more interested in the landscapes/soundscapes around. I love it. The album features also a handful of guests, but I don't recognize anyone. Still, the vocals provided feel like a good match for the compositions.

Solar costs 5.75 EUR.

Check: Cephalophore

Country: UK/France

Genre: lo-fi dream pop

Label: Pristine Audio

Softcult - See You in the Dark (2023)

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środa, 4 marca 2026

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

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wtorek, 27 stycznia 2026

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

czwartek, 8 stycznia 2026

Lorelle Meets the Obsolete - Corporal (2025)

Lorelle (or Lorena Quintanilla) and The Obsolete (aka Alberto González) make music together for 15 years now and somehow this exciting guitar music with a solid dose of ethereality has never been posted about on this blog! I really had to change that, given that the 7th album from the Mexican artists is really something.

The psychedelic rock from the duo is quite dark and minimal, drawing a lot from the cold wave and synthwave genres: Lorelle's emotionless vocals really sound like taken from the genre's main stream and the synthy backgrounds mesmerize the audience with the sequential, looping passages. I mean, almost half of Dilación is drums with bass line only, this is not the dark guitar minimalism, I don't know what is.

The album reaches an interesting point in Palabra, a track where tamed cacophony rapidly turns into industrial noise while everything is smoothed down by the subtle vocalization, I love it! It shows what range the musicians have and how unafraid of experimenting they are (especially that here's also a place for pure guitar drone track at the album too). I'm sure people know about the duo, but for me, it's a great discovery.

Corporal costs 12 EUR (10 GBP).

Check: Control

Country: Mexico

Genre: dreamy coldwave

Label: Sonic Cathedral

środa, 7 stycznia 2026

Nuclear Daisies - First Taste of Heaven (2025)

Coming from Texas are Nuclear Daisies, a band who likes their shoegaze served trippy. With Ringo Deathstarr's Alex Gehring in the lineup, the outfit released their sophomore album back in the summer, but it's so good that it deserves mentioning in the middle of winter's frozen landscape.

What makes this project quite special is the psychedelic vibes of the shoegaze/dream pop offered. Or even a step further: the trip-hop-esque bits and pieces that add up to the music's ethereal but very much otherworldly atmosphere. The further the album goes, the more audible the trip-hop influences with Doves and Fangs sounding as t-h as possible while still clearly within the realm of dreamy guitar music and finally, 333 is basically Teardrop.

This also makes the album's flow so attractive! The melodies are captivating, the pace faster than slower, the ethereality clearly noticeable in the soft vocals and hazy backgrounds. When it comes to the song I'd recommend, it has to be Infinite Joy as I love the shoegazey compositions that use the silence to fuel their overall catchiness and this is definitely the case here.

First Taste of Heaven costs 9 USD.

Check: Infinite Joy

Country: Texas, US

Genre: psychedelic shoegazey indie

Label: Portrayal of Guilt

Feral Atom - I Dream in Blue (2021)

czwartek, 4 grudnia 2025

Yndling - Time Time Time (I'm in the Palm of Your Hand) (2025)

A few months after this year's EP, Silje Espevik known as Yndling, released her sophomore album filled with the signature cute and dreamy pop music. She used the songs we already know and love and built an LP around them, making it one of the best dream pop albums of the second half of the year.

You can't help but smile when you hear Espevik's voice sounding like the summer evening sun touching your skin feels like. A bit dreamy, very melodic and soft. You don't need much more, it's enough to have hazy indie pop sounds around it and a perfect dream/indie pop music is being born. Especially that songs like Even if it's a Lie (I Don't Mind) and (especially!) As Fast As I Can are already imprinted onto my music mind since the June EP.

I like how the light and swift songs can, when it's necessary, be weighed down with some sweet guitar noise in the background, adding to the atmosphere and balancing the twee/tropical fragments (like in the trip-hop-esque title song) so well. The album is finished with two strong candidates for the best track at the album: the extremely catchy Falling Behind and the most artsy Some Things You Don't Get. There is a lot to choose from on this release, that's for sure.

Time Time Time (I'm in the Palm of Your Hand) costs 10 USD.

Check: As Fast As I Can

Country: Norway

Genre: soft dream pop

Label: Spirit Goth Records

środa, 3 grudnia 2025

Feral Atom - Przestrzenie (2025)

Finally the time has come. After a series of great singles, a brilliant EP and a series of collaborations, Ola Beręsewicz aka Feral Atom, one of the most talented dreamy artists of the new generation in Poland, released her debut album. The artist continues her style of creating soft songs, hazy atmosphere and catchy melodies, all in one.

Coming from one of the wildest and most desolated regions of the country, Beręsewicz managed to catch attention of the dreamy music lovers with her almost perfect EP I Dream in Blue, performed at festivals all around the country and secured two extremely interesting collaborations with Tomasz Mreńca and with Kryowake. Especially the former is of interest to me as I value Mreńca's music sensitivity and because he joins Feral Atom at the debut album on my favourite track Visions. This song stand out at the album with its louder, almost shoegazey vibes.

Otherwise, songs are written in more minimalist style, based mostly on Beręsewicz airy vocals and solitary guitar riffs. The structure is completed with electronic beats taken from more mainstream indie music but maintaining the dreamy, unhurried atmosphere (so well done in Cold as Ice). This hazy, spacious atmosphere is so important that the artist entitled the whole album "spaces" with three interludes directly referencing the notion. Interestingly, on the album, we have songs both in English and in Polish and somehow, this doesn't happen very often, I prefer the artist's lyrics in the foreign language. Nevertheless, a really well-done and well-rounded debut.

Przestrzenie costs 7 EUR (30 PLN).

Check: Visions

Country: Poland

Genre: hazy dream pop

Label: Seszele Records

wtorek, 25 listopada 2025

Maquillage - ArMOR (2025)

I love cases like this: a band I'd never heard about coming to my playlists with such a verve and glam that they leave me choice but to stay silent and get showered with their sound propositions. This time the situation is provided by the Belgian outfit called Maquillage lead by You, Nothing's vocalist Gioia Podestà. Wow.

So, first of all, this is indie rock music but with a strong bias toward the airy and dreamy vibes. But they draw from these without giving up the insanely catchy melodies and paces. This music is so much fun! Every other song on their debut (!) album is of the kind that you need to start humming together with the singer almost immediately. And the whole thing (and each particular song) is rather short, adding to the feeling of a short but powerful breeze going through your life, living it slightly more colourful.

But the airy bit is absolutely here. Songs like my favourite two: Are You Safe and Desire certainly benefit from the almost whispering choruses that are simple but also simply stunning. The lyrics feel slightly unnerving in some places, but overall what strikes you is the warmth of the sound and the catchiness of the repetitive phrases. Short synthy passages or sound samples only make their compositions richer without obscuring the main thing: the ethereal fun.

ArMOR costs 7 EUR.

Check: Desire

Country: Belgium

Genre: melodic dream pop

środa, 5 listopada 2025

Snakeskin - We Live in Sand (2025)

It's been already some years since I posted about Julia Sabra, my favourite Lebanese artist who makes her name as a vocalist in Postcards but also as half of a music duo with Fadi Tabbal. The title of the album they debuted as a duo became the name of the project, but the music stays the same: more experimental than Postcards, but still fairytale-ishly ethereal.

The music here is different from your ordinary dream pop charmers' sounds. The glitchy, the uncomfortably noisy and a bit industrial meets the airy and wavy in the best way possible. It makes the skin crawl a little, but, before it gets too much to bear, it gets ironed over with some beautiful guitar sounds. Or flute. Or cute electronica. But at the same time, it's also very much minimalist: there doesn't have to be much to create the atmosphere and the duo proves it over and over again. The vocalizations in Olive Groves is joined by pipe organ-like sounds and not much more and that's just an example.

But everything here is glued together by Sabra's ethereal vocals. This is deceptive, however, as the beauty of the vocals is counterbalanced by the gravity of the lyrics, commenting on the situation in Lebanon loomed over by the never-ending Near East war. "It’s a stunning paradox — a song about birth, caught in the middle of destruction. Hope, fragile and flickering, seeps through the rubble. Snakeskin has always thrived in extremes, but here the contrast is sharpened to a knife’s edge". It's true, but it's also true that the third album from the duo is their darkest yet but seeing how the situation in the region develops, it may not be the darkest in general.

We Live in Sand costs 10 USD.

Check: Olive Groves

Country: Lebanon

Genre: experimental dream pop

Label: Ruptured / Beacon Sound

Julia Sabra and Fadi Tabbal - Snakeskin (2022)

Mumrunner - Valeriana (2020)

czwartek, 16 października 2025

Mumrunner - Yearning Heart (2025)

I can hardly wrap my head around it, but it's already almost a decade since I discovered my favourite Finnish shoegazey-dream popey band through their brilliant Gentle Slopes EP. Time flies when you're not looking... Luckily the Tampere-based group still does their signature light but moody, melodic but airy take on the haziest of music genres.

I like how carefree and soft the music sounds. There's certainly some element of twee and lo-fi music in here, although probably in the spirit, not necessarily in the form because the album sounds well-developed and -made. Most of the time it's the melodies and the easy-listening vibes that matter, making the whole thing sounding like a younger sister of Pia Fraus. It's definitely not about the noisy element. But it doesn't mean that there are no disruptions. There are and they always catch attention, like the change of the tone in Violet or the sudden stop of Hawkeye.

Yearning Heart costs 9 EUR.

Check: Violet

Country: Finland

Genre: melodic dream pop

Mumrunner - Gentle Slopes EP (2016)

wtorek, 14 października 2025

Meena - Different Now (2025)

A blend of genres that gives birth to a concoction that is as airy as it is catchy? Count me in! The Manchester-based Meena has released three EP before their long-play debut, but this is the day now! Or it was in August. Nevertheless, Different Now is hell of an album.

"An incomparably intricate wonderfully listenable burst of mayhem, beautiful delicate sounds woven in a cathartic wave" says the band when asked what they play. I say that the intimate layer of oneiric music, mostly due to the extremely ear-pleasing vocals, is definitely there, mayhem I don't hear. But it doesn't matter as the vocals are accompanied by an artistic blend of electronic music, rock music, trip-hop music, post-punk music. You know how sometimes you see something you know was made out of different elements, but you don't see it at first glance? I have this with this album.

The electronic sounds in the backgrounds sometimes create melodies but sometimes give out some of the post-punk's roughness (like in Money), which sometimes feel restricted in the trip-hop-like beats. I like artful complications and this is exactly what I get here.

Different Now costs 12 EUR (9.99 GBP).

Check: Creation

Country: UK

Genre: airy electronic wave

Meena - Newspapers (2023)

czwartek, 9 października 2025

The Deadly Affair - Visions Through the Sense of Silence (2025)

I can't believe that this is only debut from the Chilean band The Deadly Affairs! When I came across it, I was sure it's created by an experienced group and probably a bit too well-known for this blog. This is not the case, even though Visions Through the Sense of Silence makes certainly a well-made and very airy darkwave release.

The image and the vocals scream darkwave here, but the atmosphere of the music around it is far from this genre, way closer to slowcore, dream pop genres. Which, together with the backing vocals make my genre-centered mind go through some unbelievable options including ambient cold wave or ethereal post-punk. I love it. And it's ot only that, the band can create this overwhelming yet calm atmosphere that drags the audience to the ground but also feels very intimate. Like a heavy blanket made of cold wave music. And it's still not everything because they are as swift with ambiance creation as with writing catchy melodies which may sound strange, but Take My Blood is certainly a banger you hum together with the artists.

This "stark and hypnotic descent into brooding atmospheres and unrelenting tension", as it's advertised by the label, makes one of the most promising debuts of the year, regardless of the genre.

Visions Through the Sense of Silence costs 7 USD.

Check: Take My Blood

Country: Chile

Genre: ethereal darkwave

Label: Anything That Makes Light