Pokazywanie postów oznaczonych etykietą ethereal wave. Pokaż wszystkie posty
Pokazywanie postów oznaczonych etykietą ethereal wave. Pokaż wszystkie posty

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



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



wtorek, 6 stycznia 2026

ARIMA - Ez dago amor (2025)


Is the band led by Paule Bilbao my favourite outfit that makes music in Basque language? Yes, obviously, it's the only one I know. But the fact about ARIMA is that it's one of the European hidden gems the music of which is definitely worth discovering. Regardless of the language it is sung in.

The signature sound of the Basque is the combination of indie rock (with more focus on the "rock part" with noisy and hazy vibes. Bilbao's clear and strong vocal carries the compositions but at the same time (at least in my ears and mind) stops me from putting their music on the shelf labeled "shoegaze". Which is fair play, as the vocals a) are fantastic and b) leave a lot of space for the instruments to create this slow(ish) and heavy atmosphere. As I know since their appearance at the AM Festival, this sounds particularly impressive live.

The noisier and more ambient passages don't slow down the melodies here. It's the melody that makes  Isurkari one of my favourite tracks of the end of 2025, but truth be told, this short EP is stacked with hits like guitar-rich Zarata for example, with the spoken-word-based intro and outro tracks adding to the album's atmosphere. I wonder if the band plans to release their first LP anytime soon, I, for one, would appreciate it very much.

Ez dago amor costs 8 EUR.

Check: Isurkari
Country: Basque Country/Spain
Genre: ethereal indie rock
Label: Bonberenea / Aloud Music Ltd.




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



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



środa, 2 lipca 2025

Monochromatic Visions - Change Who You Are (2025)


It's only four tracks, but when something is that good, who cares? I have mentioned the British band a couple of times before and it's no surprise as their music makes a perfect blend of the noisy and the melodic. It was proven on their new EP.

Shoegaze, new wave, pop music. They all have their place within this short release. The music here feels light and unbelievably catchy, but there is a hint of a darker atmosphere and the omnipresent noise somewhere in the backgrounds, like something you catch with the corner of your eye but can't really focus your sight on. All for compositions are worth checking out, including the most poppy one, the first song of the album, I Told You. And frankly, I like it the most, probably because it's as catchy as it can be, a candidate for a summer hit within the noisier offstream world.

Change Who You Are costs 14 EUR (12 GBP) (which is slightly ridiculous to be honest).

Check: I Told You
Country: UK
Genre: melodic ethereal wave




wtorek, 1 kwietnia 2025

ANIMADORA - Sobre lo visible (2025)


If anyone craves some dreamy vibes but with strong sense of rock-like energy, very emotional vocals and heavy guitars, the second EP from the Spanish ANIMADORA is something to try. Sobre lo visible may be short, but there is some fantastic vibes included.

ANIMADORA seems to be a solo project by Andrea Podadera that evolved into a 5-pieces band (at least that's what RYM suggests). And this wide line-up is certainly audible: the compositions are multi-layered, with a big focus put on creating the shoegaze atmosphere but still maintaining the rock/grunge-like energy. The tracks are usually vibrant and fast, they make me think on the band's compatriots (at least formally!) from Arima, so I know that I won't stop listening to the alum anytime soon.

The EP talks a lot about relationships (that didn't go that well) in an emotional but also extremely poetic way. It is in Spanish, which I appreciate, so I have to rely mostly on a translator, but, yeah, those kinds of words are very universal. It is so well visible in the opening track that talks about the Devil the protagonist falls in love with and in El Carro:inóvil, certainly the most emotional piece here. 

Sobre lo visible costs 5 EUR.

Check: El Carro:inóvil 
Country: Spain
Genre: grungy shoegaze



czwartek, 20 marca 2025

SPC ECO - Hello (2025)


There are a few bands who refuse to publish their work on Spotify or do so in a limited way. And while I respect this decision and back all the efforts for achieving justice in the music industry, my playlist-focused way of listening to music is hurt. One of the bands are the Bandcamp's giants from UK who released their... I can't even count that high. They released ANOTHER great album.

Their signature electronica-heavy trip-hop music with a strong ethereal atmosphere on top is back. The Rose Berlin - Dean Garcia duo (helped, as always, by Jarek Leśkiewicz from Poland) doesn't stray away from what they do best: mixing the melodies with dense electronica and so creating melancholic and psychedelic musical paintings. Those can be extremely catchy and hit-worthy (like the title track Hello) or serving as mood-producing little machines. It's no surprise that the album is dedicated to the late David Lynch. It's the mood that matters.

Hello costs 11 EUR (9 GBP).

Check: Hello
Country: UK
Genre: dreamy trip-hop




wtorek, 18 marca 2025

Tremours - Fragments (2025)

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Back in 2022 I posted about a single from a new dreamy band from California (yes, another one) and now I'm happy to say that the band developed into a full-fledged ethereal power, one ready to show their debut album to the world. And you have to know that the Lauren Andino and Glenn Fryatt duo's music is out of the top league.

Andino's vocals are the base of the project's warm and airy vibes. The rather slow and very much cosy melodies fit flow from the very first track like a stream of consciousness. This also reflects what the vocalist says about their work: "Most of our songs center around loneliness. Not necessarily sadness, but the comfort that you can find in being lonely". Being alone in the cosy way. The vocals are supported by the music in which the bass lines are what stands out the most, making me use the ethereal wave tag to describe the band. I like those moments when the music grows out of the background and shines the most as in tad noisier Dark Glasses but my favourite song as to be the melodic, West Coast nostalgia in Devil Town.

The duo is becoming a big deal which you can sense from the fact that the album attracted artists such as Peter Holmström (The Dandy Warhols) and Mark van Hoen (The Locust) as well as Simon Scott of Slowdive who mastered the whole endeavour. 

Fragments costs 9.99 USD.

Check: Devil Town
Country: California, US
Genre: ethereal wave



środa, 19 kwietnia 2023

Laikamorí - △​△​△ (2023)


The Peruvian artists who currently live in US, Laikamorí, made me fall in love with their unique and weird music with their fantastic debut Persōna five years ago. Now, they are back and △​△​△ proves that the debut was not a coincidence.

Based on electronic music that can be both lively and energetic as well as dark and gloomy, Laikamorí's compositions spark awe with how uniquely they sound. The industrial influences take over most of the tracks but they have to share with almost-dub-like electronica and noisy ambient parts. And this all is accompanied by one of the most interesting vocals out there: high-pitched and dreamy that express this partly gibberish partly poetic lyrics to make everything glow with the most attractive kind of musical mystery. 

And this is the first time I can post here, under a band picture I took personally. Apart from being extremely talented, the two artists proved to be super friendly when they spent some time in Kraków back in 2021.

△​△​△ costs 10 USD.


Check: Amok
Country: Peru/New York, US
Genre: ethereal wave



poniedziałek, 4 kwietnia 2022

re​:​lapse - re​:​lapse II​.​ep (2022)


The Tokyo-based outfit re:lapse started making their music back in 2019 and since then released two EPs. The newest one, entitled as simply as it could be, is a fascinating and very dreamy take on the guitar-based dream pop.

The main characteristics of the Japanese's music must be the super airy and very sweet vocals by Kurage - there's tons of dispersing effects and ethereal backing vocals here and it couldn't sound better for a dream pop release. The second thing are very obvious and well-audible guitars that feel heavier and coarser than it usually is for such an airy music. But as they are withdrawn and hidden in the noisy backgrounds, they serve as a kind of spice that makes the whole compositions stand out from the ethereal blend. The ethereality of the album is even more striking thanks to the slower pace of the music that makes it so easy to get sucked into the dreamy landscapes as envisioned by the band.

re​:​lapse II​.​ep costs 5 USD.

Check: tonight,tonight,tonight
Country: Japan
Genre: slowcore shoegaze
Label: DREAMWAVES RECORDS



poniedziałek, 21 marca 2022

E-L-R - Vexier (2022)


I was lucky enough to witness E-L-R's beginnings when back in 2019 they performed live during the Bergmal Festival in Zurych with their very fresh debut album Mænad. It was quite mind-blowing so I couldn't wait for the continuation of their career. The struggle is over with the band's new album called Vexier.

The combination of very heavy guitar riffs from the sludge/post-metal musical area with the dispersed and airy but also very psychedelic vocals is the core of the Swiss band's work. The said vocals express extremely ethereal lyrics ("opiate the Sun" sounds like something taken from a braver, lyrics-wise, version of the old Slowdive or MBV) divided into short phrases that make them feel like tribal-esque mesmerizing chanting. All of this makes this sophomore album a very literal continuation of the debut, including such an interesting detail as longer pauses between tracks filled with subtle sound samples of cracking fire and other nature-originating moody tunes.

The mesmerizing features of the band's works are present also in the music itself: its slow, doom-like pace and psychedelic guitars make it easy to get lost within the sounds. As their Bandcamp page describes it, they "oscillates elegantly between velvet darkness and flaring bursts of high energy" but the bursts are always toned down, covered by the layers of post-metal noise that makes everything a very homogeneous and smooth (the velvet reference is on point!) sound.

Vexier costs 6.99 USD.


Check: Seeds
Country: Switzerland
Genre: ethereal post-metal
Label: Prophecy Productions



środa, 9 marca 2022

Blurred City Lights - Micropolis (2022)


Blurred City Lights appeared on this blog once before, back in 2018, when the duo released their second album Volker. But the artists themselves have been a big part of this blog anyway: Dean Garcia with the phenomenal trip-hop SPC ECO and Jarek Leśkiewicz as Opollo or half of Sunset Wrecks. There was little doubt that the new release from the two should be posted about here.

The whole project balances on the border between dreamy genres and trip-hop and progressive rock. Somehow, for me, Leśkiewicz's vocals are exactly between Riverside's Mariusz Duda and Slowdive's Rachel Goswell. If one had to label this music, they would probably go for dreamy trip-hop though, and I can absolutely hear that (especially in the parts where both are helped by another familiar face, the second half of SPC ECO - Rose Berlin). I appreciate both artist's skills in creating this trip-hoppy soundscape filled with subtle beats and imagine-fuelling electronic sounds all over them. However, this wouldn't be a complete picture since the duo are also well suited for guitar sounds as well, sometimes quite heavy, sometimes quite grungy and riff-oriented. It really is a blend of many things and as such, could only be appreciated. Especially that the whole album feels very coherent with its airy and surreal atmosphere that happens to be expressed in many different ways.

Micropolis costs 7.5 EUR (6 GBP).


Check: All My Days
Country: UK/Poland
Genre: ethereal trip-hop



sobota, 29 stycznia 2022

SOM - The Shape of Everything (2022)


The American band SOM debuted five years ago with The Fall but at the beginning of this year they managed to release an even better followup in the form of The Shape of Everything (pun intended). Their heavy blackgaze is dark and captivating, no wonder this is one of the more important heavy music albums of January.

The band's sound, already baptized as "doom pop", creates a post-metal, heavy-guitar-oriented atmosphere with delicate, dreamy vocals sitting on top. In this case, they very much remind me of Holy Fawn and this is a huge compliment. The balance between the crushingly loud music with guitar riffs that dominate the soundscapes and the ethereal, shoegazey type of delivery is most certainly difficult to achieve but the Americans do it very well. You can feel that the music is heavy and airy at the same time. The blackgaze walls of noise seem to close on the listener in each of the compositions, making them feel as massive as possible and as a shoegaze release should.

This gloomy atmosphere that resides on the album and constitutes the core force behind its might, comes from observing the reality around us. Unfortunately, it usually brings darker inspirations as the band used "the darkness of recent times to create and heal". This blissful sound surely has some healing properties.

The Shape of Everything costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: Son of Winter
Country: US
Genre: airy doomgaze
Label: Pelagic Records



czwartek, 13 stycznia 2022

Fragrance. - Salt Water (2021)


Matthieu Roche, a.k.a. Fragrance with a dot, comes from France and creates very unique blend of heavy club music with extremely airy vocals. His music is both moody and catchy so I couldn't miss the opportunity to post about his second album called Forevermore.

His music, in many ways similar to what another French artist, Hante, does, creates this peculiar feeling in the audience: the urge to dance and to sink in the melancholic atmosphere at the same time. The basses Roche creates are deep and the compositions very much club-fitting, but there's a touch of darkness in them as well. Darkness that is obvious when you listen to his vocals - airy, smooth and whispering-like, a true dream pop way of singing. This surprising and exciting marriage of genres is only more so when the music becomes full front dance-inciting in Bind Me Up with Your Flesh. This depressive dance feeling is so well explained in my favourite track on the album, Crisis: "You will dance your pain away/ You will dance it anyway/ Now the crisis’s back/ Intertwining dark". Easy - you're in pain but you dance anyway, like all of us.

But the true value of the album is how the tracks are both dreamy and extremely catchy at the same time with songs like Covered in Gold (with those fantastic backing vocals!) and Crises are simply speaking pure music hits and it's only fortunate that they, in some way, belong to the dream pop genre.

Salt Water costs 7 EUR.

Check: Crisis
Country: France
Genre: dreamy dark electronica
Label: Synth Religion



wtorek, 4 stycznia 2022

Plaisir - Foam (2021)


So the Italian-Swedish-French trio from Berlin came back last year to gift us their longest album up to date. I already posted about the dreamy but also erotica-soaked band when they had only a short single two years ago so Foam is something I really had to go back to.

First of all, what the hell? The first track's title is in Polish and translates to "salty butter/butter with salt" and the only thing my brain makes connection to is a taste of crisps. In reality it's meant ot be a "hopeful song about agony" and warns us to be "far away from butter and salt" - is it because the crisps are unhealthy? Probably not. But the certain thing is that this track shows what I like about the band the most - the way all of the musicians sing (sometimes in their own languages, sometimes as spoken word) and how it creates a chaotic but very engaging atmosphere all over the album. 

But there's more to their music. It is built on very prominent bass lines with the psychedelic hazy sounds playing less important roles than it's traditionally in dream pop. So although there's tons of oneiric atmosphere here, especially in the way the vocals cooperate, the music has a very noticeable post-punk vibe. And, what's at least as important as the atmosphere, the artists can create so catchy melodies! Cold the Paraoh or Hunting Season are best example with their tunes following me since I first heard them.

Foam costs 7 EUR.


Check: Masło z solą
Country: Germany, Italy, France, Sweden
Genre: ethereal wave



piątek, 31 grudnia 2021

Fawns of Love - Innocence of Protection (2021)


Jenny and Joseph Andreotti make up the Fawns of Love duo and have been making music together for four years and three albums now. The third one, Innocence of Protection, was released this autumn and shows the couple's ability to create fun and catchy dreamy tunes.

The California-based artists' music is based on Jenny's airy and high-pitched vocals accompanied by the mellow, not-too-noisy guitar compositions. This sounds like a more ethereal take on twee pop, easy-listening dream pop that is pure fun and relaxation. Tracks like Waiting for Dali's Car and Taboo Daydreaming make a very good examples of catchy songs that, at the same time, make you chill out to their tunes. This is served in a minimal, wave-like way, with soft guitars and shallow basses all around. But the real treat is actually Andreotti's vocals themselves - the way they are dispersed, make them sound so angelic that it's actually pretty cool that there's no many things that obstruct them. And they are able to create the properly dreamy atmosphere almost on their own (like it is in Memory Triggers). It's a good example of a very solid airy release.

Innocence of Protection costs 8 USD.

Check:  Waiting for Dali's Car 
Country: California, US
Genre: mellow dream pop
Label: Kingfisher Bluez



poniedziałek, 29 listopada 2021

Fotoform - Horizons (2021)


Fotoform is a Seattle-based dream pop band who, after releasing their second album, got acknowledged by the biggest, including the iconic KEXP. No wonder, their, as they call it, dreamy post-punk is very catchy and atmospheric at the same time. You can now check it out on Horizons.

Their own description is actually very fitting: post-punk influences the way the songs are based very much on the thick, easily recognizable bass line while fuzzy guitars are left in the backgrounds most of the time. The dreamy ingredient surely include vocals by Kim House. They are properly dream-like with tons of reverbs and high-pitched beauty. There's a fine balance between them expressing actual lyrics and serving as haze-inducing backing vocals - it is so well audible in Running and You Set Fire to the Sun - a lively and melodic track with House's voice put on a pedestal. 

My favourite ones have to be the more atmospheric, moody ones. I really enjoy how the opening in Shadow Spreads is finished with the abruptly introduced silence, but songs like Let's Shut Out the World, Take and  We Crystallize make the true dreamy experience with vocals focused on creating the atmosphere and toned down melodies. Especially the finish in the latter creates a well-cooked psychedelic and noisy soundscape, one that is perfect to dream to. 

Horizons costs 8 USD.

Check: We Crystallize
Country: Washington, US
Genre: dreamy post-punk



poniedziałek, 15 listopada 2021

Midsommar - The Dream We Had (2021)


Almost exactly two years after their first live gig in Warsaw, the dreamy band Midsommar showed their first ever EP, making sure to enrich the Polish dream pop scene. The Dream We Had makes for a good debut with its exciting melodies and airy atmosphere.

One of the driving forces for the airiness here surely is Alia Fay and her vocals: they start sounding not unlike Holy Motors' Eliann Tulve's, but soon get into higher-pitched, more female-dream-pop levels but with a unique flavour to them. Fay voice is fair and innocent, bringing a lot of light to the noisy music. As do melodies written by the band, with Soft being a strong candidate for the 2021's Polish dreamy hit like Rays of Sun by Strangers in My House was last year. The EP starts in a catchy, melodic way, but soon enough it is dirtied up with some tasty guitar noise, most noticeable in Spring's extremely ethereal choruses. I love the way it cooperates with Fay's multilayered chorus-like vocal madness here.

Their music feels light and colourful, but also hazy and mesmerizing. It can't be a coincidence that their name is also the title of one of the most colourful and haziest horror movies of all times. Can't wait for more of their music.

The Dream We Had costs 5 EUR (21 PLN).

Check: Soft
Country: Poland
Genre: hazy dream pop



czwartek, 11 listopada 2021

Nightcrush - You Mark Me the Deepest (2021)


They have been releasing singles for over a year now and finally decided to show their debut LP called You Mark Me the Deepest now; Nightcrush are an Italian duo Raffaele Galasso - Alessandra Cesano, who create an interesting take on ethereal wave music.

This is indeed an interesting one. The artists use a lot of synths and don't shy away from the wave genres as far as vocals and the overall mood are concerned, but at the same time they drown everything deep in the ethereal, dreamy atmosphere. The vocals are very much dispersed, shoegaze-style, the melodies withdrawn and hidden in the airy noise that is present in every second of the release. At the same time, you can hardly say it's not a loud playlist, but the massiveness of the sound builds up very slowly so you can hardly notice that a dispersed, ambient-pop like track turns into a noise soundscape shoegaze fans won't say no to. I especially like this in Lonely Sea that catches the way an actual sea creates a noise that exists mostly in the background of consciousness.

But it doesn't mean the Italians can't do some serious, full frontal noise. Moonpearl is a track the intention of which is to crush the audience from the first notes. I love how slow but steadily moving their music feels, it's not rapid like an avalanche but profoundly inevitable like glaciers. Very interesting take on noisy music.

You Mark Me the Deepest costs 7 EUR.

Check: Lonely Sea
Country: Italy
Genre: post-punk shoegaze
Label: Shunu Records