LOLOET - Circle of Echoes (2026)

When I listened to this album, I didn't know the story around it. But apparently LOLOET is a project centred around Ayaka Wada, a j-pop singer and an idol known from girlsband Angerme, who decided to create... ambient pop? How cool is that?!  What's more important, the effects are fascinating: the slowcore, jazzy and experimental pop feels both artsy and fun to listen to. This February, the band released their debut album and it's definitely worth checking out.

Wada says she wanted to make music "that resembles the paintings of Mark Rothko" (yes, those bright and colourful minimalist and abstract pieces) and I... don't see it. I mean the abstraction is certainly there, but this music is far from minimalism. But it's very, very possible I don't focus on the right thing, I have no idea about paintings. My point is that music here is very, very rich. Yes, it may start as ambient background, but it quickly evolves into jazzy and neoclassical structures that ripple around and change shapes all the time while Wada's soft and airy vocals charm their way into the listeners' hearts.

It's such a fascinating journey this album: you can't guess what's going to happen next. Some compositions are vocalless and they are magical too (I'm looking at you, les yeux) and some become a poetry reading that touches upon important, sociopolitical themes. The thing that makes this music special is also the use of trumpet sounds: Chan keng's doing what he can to add this trumpet charisma to the compositions without overwhelming the listener, which I really appreciate.

Circle of Echoes costs 15 EUR ( ¥2,800).

Check: Le matin

Country: Japan

Genre: slowcore/ambient pop

Label: Kankyo-ON

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Ritual Cloak - Vanished in Transition (2023)

The Welsh project Ritual Cloak consists of Daniel Barnett, (known from the post-rock outfit Samoans) and producer Andrew Sanders. Together they released a new EP this year, which is said to be a change in their musical direction.

Vanished in Transition is filled with slow, introspective compositions that don't hurry anywhere and flow peacefully but also melancholically on and on. The post-rock origins of Barnett are pretty audible as the compositions are based on delicate guitar noise and slow, pulsating beats as well as some jazzy influences here and there. This corresponds brilliantly with the soft, sad vocals that feel like they were there but not really. Like a mist in the distance of this soundscape. It's no wonder that the album was born from the band's "fascination of disappearing", everything here is so airy that may as well suddenly disappear into thin air.

Vanished in Transition costs 9.5 EUR (8 GBP).    

Check: Left Behind

Country: Wales, UK

Genre: post-rock soundscape

Label: Bubblewrap Collective

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Ziggurat - HYPNOS (2022)

Ziggurat's PREFACE was an album I found particularly interesting on the post-rock scene back in 2019. Although years passed, the Texas band's eclectic and very broad definition of the genre hasn't changed. HYPNOS was meant to be released back before the pandemics hit and it took some years to finish after all.

Led by a grand piano, HYPNOS really feels like a fruit of many years of work. These compositions are very jazzy and chill-out-like. The pace is not very high but it's not the important thing here. There are still many things going on in every second of the album with the piano sounds cementing them together into the psychedelically diverse wholes. It was designed to meet the expectations of people of various musical interests who should be glad to taste this "musical smoothie [that] creates a refreshing experience" for all. It certainly makes the listener more relaxed, the mesmerizing compositions create a perfect environment for escaping the world's busy reality and, as such, the album should be praised.

HYPNOS costs 7 USD.

Ziggurat - PREFACE (2019)

Check: RETURN HOME

Country: Texas, US

Genre: piano-led instrumental

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Neon Iglu - Stranput (2022)

This is official my first post on a Croatian music project on this blog and it comes as a result of my journey to the Zagreb's INmusic Festival. I didn't manage to see Neon Iglu live there but their new (and debut) album is certainly worth catching up to.

Stranput contains "cathartic compositions of noise, kraut-rock and noise pop inclinations": there's complex and very artsy but also slow and not-very-overwhelming music that in some parts is clearly a guitar-based post-rock while in some other is more inspired by (post)jazz genres. This is this kind of music that can hardly bore anyone as it changes so fast and contains so many elements. One of them are vocals - soft and melancholic, very space rock-like, more often than not lost within the music. The band is also very fluent in captivating the audience within their compositions - this is this psychedelic rock's influence and I appreciate it very much.

Stranput costs 7 EUR.

Check: Omen

Country: Croatia

Genre: psychedelic post-rock

Label: Geenger Records

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SALTO - Cappuccino (2021)

Saying that I'm not huge on jazz music would be an understatement. There are, however, projects clearly inspired by the genre that I enjoy to say the least. One of them is SALTO, debuting band from Poznań, Poland, who make this tasty blend of jazz, noise, post-rock and music improv I find particularly attractive. 

The trio released their debut album Capuccino last summer and it's a release with a lot of potential. Coming from behind such Polish bands as Lonker See or Ciśnienie, SALTO captured their music during live performances and now it's used to make the debut album. In their music, there are parts that are chaotically psychedelic, perhaps even bordering with instrumental ambient, ones that clearly set up the mood towards emotional contemplation. However, they do give place to guitar-based, high-paced compositions soon enough. Those are carried by the jazzy, very clear bass line with guitar riffs that are both noisy and artsy. And the whole things ends with a loud and guitar crescendo in a very good post-rock style.

A worth mentioning addition to the music makes the cover art by Ania Cywińska - such a beautiful and psychedelic image that combines the classical painting with modern distortions. No wonder SALTO's members say it "brilliantly captured and visually communicated" the music on the album.

Cappuccino costs 3.5 EUR (15 PLN).

Check: Cappuccino

Country: Poland

Genre: noisy instrumental

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Ciśnienie - Radio Edit (2021)

Ciśnienie is a Katowice, Poland-based jazzy post-rock band that exists for a while now but had no studio long play album in their discography until now. This is great news because the live albums, although generally appreciated, didn't strike the right note with me. With Radio Edit it's so much different (although technically it's also live but recorded with no audience).

The album is opened with a quieter jazzy and piano-based fragment in Czarodziej ("A Wizard") but this massive, over 16-minutes long track goes on and ends up in a very post-rock, guitar-filled way with a big and loud bang. It is surprisingly serious and dark (for a jazzy music) but this feeling is denied with Zerok, a lively, trumpet-oriented tune that brings light to the heavy vibes of the album's beginning and quickly evolves into a jazzy chaos we know and like. Most of the fragments all over the album, however, are built more like post-rock pieces - with music gradually building up to a loud and satisfying finish (best heard in Calm the fuck down, one that is as far from being calm as possible).

The best part of the album for me would be Diet Choke, the shortest track here surprises with heavy electronic leitmotif that brings a lot of extremely attractive industrial and heavy vibes, this is the track that evokes the most tension and puts a lot of pressure ("ciśnienie" in Polish) on the audience and they're bound to love it.

Radio Edit costs (5 EUR).

Check: Diet Choke

Country: Poland

Genre: jazzy post-rock

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Convulsif - Extinct (2020) EN

Convulsif are from Switzerland and, as we are ever so often proved again, Switzerland is rich in the loud guitar music. The Swiss released now their second album called Extinct with some crazily unique approach to post-rock noise on it. 

Obviously, the uniqueness of the band is built on the instruments present in the lineup - violins or clarinet are not what you call your obvious choice for the post-rock turmoil. And the latter really is top class. The band's music is ruled by chaos that almost in every track turns into complex loudness with time. Especially that the musicians like to give themselves quite some time to develop the compositions from instrumental ambient slash thick bass line-oriented jazz into the very noisy and very jazzy post-rock. Or perhaps even noisy jazz as the traditional post-rock way of building things is not really a thing here.

But besides the label, you can safely say that the Swiss music is in its core very artsy and chaotic as well, I wouldn't be surprised if most of this album was improvised live. But this is the charm of the music like this, I strongly recommend it.

Extinct costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: The Axe Will Break

Country: Switzerland

Genre: jazzy post-rock

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Convulsif - Extinct (2020) PL

Convulsif pochodzą ze Szwajcarii, a jak przekonujemy się co i rusz, Szwajcaria głośną muzyką gitarową stoi. Helweci wydali właśnie swój drugi krążek zatytułowany Extinct, a na nim kawał szalenie oryginalnego podejścia do post-rockowego hałasu.

Z pewnością oryginalności zespołowi przydają instrumenty, którymi się posługują - skrzypce czy klarnet to nie są twoje oczywiste skojarzenia z post-rockową zawieruchą. A ta jest naprawdę przednia. W muzyce zespołu króluje chaos zamieniający się w kompleksowy hałas praktycznie w każdym kawałku. Zwłaszcza, że muzycy dają sobie czas by powoli rozwijać swoje wielominutowe kompozycje z instrumentalnego ambientu graniczącego z bazującym na mocnej linii basu jazzem prosto w noise'owy i bardzo jazzowy w brzmieniu post-rock. A może wręcz po prostu noisy jazz bo z tradycyjnymi post-rockowymi kompozycjami to specjalnie się nie kojarzy. 

Jednak nie patrząc na labelki można śmiało stwierdzić, że twórczość Szwajcarów jest w swoim założeniu bardzo artystyczna i mocno chaotyczna, nie zdziwiłbym się gdyby większość z tego albumu była improwizowana. No ale taki właśnie jest urok takiej muzyki instrumentalnej. Polecam. 

Extinct kosztuje tyle, ile chcesz zapłacić.

Sprawdź: The Axe Will Break

Kraj: Szwajcaria

Szufladka: jazzy post-rock

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Loma - Don't Shy Away (2020) EN

Loma is a trio established in Belgium and making their music in Texas, their music meaning a unique mix of dream pop vibes with somewhat exotic inspirations, something like dreamier Still Corners. No wonder that their albums are released by Sub Pop themselves. And since the last one was so great, the new one, entitled Don't Shy Away, had to appear on the blog even more so.

Extremely airy vocals by Emily Cross make the basis of the music. Within there's both the mystery of dream pop and the catchiness of art pop. And when it's not enough, there are backing vocals that bring on such quantities of ethereality that it can be swum in. What's less obvious is the music - it sounds more like exotically inspired indie pop in some parts while somewhere else more like intimate blues-ish tunes rather than more traditional guitar-oriented dream pop/shoegaze. It's so good that the band got back together to record the second album, as the legend says, after their music became of interest by Brian Eno himself.

This style is present in the fantastic Half Silences, probably the most catchy one on the album. Still, the artists can easily make this jazzy, a bit old-school mixture turn into some really mesmerizing passages as in Given a Sign or Breaking Waves Like a Stone. And the spoken word in Thorn is something that brings goosebumps which is especially wierd while listening to such a hot album.

Don't Shy Away costs 10 USD.

Check: Given a Sign

Country: Texas, US

Genre: jazzy dream pop

Label: Sub pop

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Loma - Don't Shy Away (2020) PL

Loma to trio założone w Belgii a tworzące w Teksasie i grające specyficzną mieszankę dreampopowych klimatów z dość egzotycznymi inspiracjami, trochę jak bardziej rozmarzone Still Corners. Nic dziwnego, że kolejne albumy wydają im sami ludzie z Sub Pop. A że poprzedni był znakomity, ten, zatytułowany Don't Shy Away, tym bardziej musiał znaleźć się na tym blogu.

Niezwykle eteryczny wokal Emily Cross jest podstawą muzyki zespołu. Jest w nim i tajemniczość dream popu i przebojowość najlepszego art popu. A gdy tego jest jeszcze za mało, chórki dodają takiej dawki eteryczności, że można w niej pływać. Mniej oczywista jest za to muzyka wkoło wokali - bardziej przypomina inspirowany egzotycznymi miejscami indie pop a w innych momentach intymnymi około-bluesowymi klimatami niż tradycyjnie gitarowy dream pop/shoegaze. Jak więc dobrze, że zespół zszedł się znowu, jak głosi legenda dzięki temu, że ich muzyką zainteresował się sam Brian Eno.

I w takiej konwencji znajduje się fantastyczny Half Silences, prawdopodobnie najbardziej wpadający w ucho kawałek. Niemniej, artyści potrafią z tej jazzującej, trochę oldschoolowej mieszanki stworzyć naprawdę hipnotyzujące pasaże, jak te w Given a Sign czy Breaking Waves Like a Stone. A spoken word w Thorn to coś, co absolutnie powoduje gęsią skórkę, a to dziwne przy słuchaniu tak gorącego krążka.

Don't Shy Away kosztuje 38 złotych (10 USD).

Sprawdź: Given a Sign

Kraj: Teksas, US

Szufladka: jazzy dream pop

Label: Sub pop

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YODOK III - A Dreamer Ascends (2020) EN

One thing is certain, the members of the Norwegian YODOK III know their own value, on their Bandcamp we can read about "three fine exponents of modern, forward-thinking and experimental music" who while working together, transgressed their own borders. Nicely said, the most important thing though is that said collaboration results in good music, like the one on their last album called A Dreamer Ascends.

It has this unique atmosphere of concert improvisation and this is its great strength. So we have here some ambient introductions, jazzy fragments and eventually loud, post-rock finales. The interesting sound is probably achieved greatly by the instruments with amplified tuba and flugabone. The two tracks are very long but also extremely engaging. That said, it's a pity they end in this weird way which kind of prevents the full immersion. Still, a solid dose of music for those of us who long for live gig experience.

A Dreamer Ascends costs 7 EUR.

Sprawdź: Off The Black Moon

Kraj: Norwegia

Szufladka: improv post-rock

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YODOK III - A Dreamer Ascends (2020) PL

Jedno jest pewne, członkowie norweskiego YODOK III znają swoją wartość, na ich bandcampie czytamy o "three fine exponents of modern, forward-thinking and experimental music", którzy pracując razem przekraczali swoje kolejne granice. Ładnie powiedziane, najważniejsze jednak, ze współpraca ta owocuje dobrą muzyką, taką jak ta na ich kolejne płycie A Dreamer Ascends.

Ma ona tę niepowtarzalną atmosferę koncertowej improwizacji i w tym leży siła tria. Mamy więc i ambientowe wprowadzenia i jazzujące fragmenty i w końcu głośne, bardzo post-rockowe finały. Ciekawe brzmienie to pewnie też zasługa instrumentów, zwłaszcza wzmacniana tuba i puzon. Dwa kawałki są bardzo długie ale też niezwykle wciągające, szkoda tylko, że kończą się w tak dziwny sposób, trochę to przeszkadza pełnemu zanurzeniu w klimat. Tak czy inaczej - solidna dawka muzyki dla spragnionych koncertowych wrażeń.

A Dreamer Ascends kosztuje 32 złote (7 EUR).

Sprawdź: Off The Black Moon

Kraj: Norwegia

Szufladka: improv post-rock

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Whale Fall - It Will Become Itself (2020) PL

Stajnia australijskiego Art as Catharsis powiększyła się o kalifornijskich post-rockowców z Whale Fall. Wydana w kwietniu płyta It Will Become Itself to świeże spojrzenie na gitarowy post-rock z ambicjami do bycia czymś więcej.

Wyjątkowość zespołu leży w ich umiejętności łączenia tradycyjnego post-rockowego instrumentarium "z bardziej sielskimi dźwiękami pianina, wiolonczeli, dęciaków i okazjonalnie analogowego syntezatora." Płyta powstała na podstawie studyjnej improwizacji całego zespołu, która po kilku miesiącach została odkryta na nowo i uznana za udaną na tyle, by zamienić ją w regularne wydawnictwo i tak stała się sobą, jak upamiętnia jej tytuł. 

Wrażenie robi zwłaszcza trwający niemal połowę niekrótkiego przecież albumu El Caracol. W nim najlepiej czuć ten improwizowany, mocno jazzujący chociaż wciąż nadzwyczaj klimatyczny sznyt zespołu. Swój szczyt album osiąga natomiast w A Street Scene w jego chaotyczno-instrumentalnej kakofonii

It Will Become Itself kosztuje 28 złotych (10 AUD).

Sprawdź: A Street Scene

Kraj: Kalifornia, US

Szufladka: jazzy post-rock
Label: Art as Catharsis

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Whale Fall - It Will Become Itself (2020) EN

The Art as Catharsis label added Californian post-rockers from Whale Fall to their team. Released in April, the album It Will Become Itself makes a fresh take on guitar post-rock with ambitions to become something more.

The uniqueness of the band is due to their ability to combine the traditional post-rock instruments with "more pastoral strokes of piano, cello, brass, and occasional analog synth." The album was created on the basis of a studio improvisation of the whole band that after several months was discovered anew and assessed to be good enough to become a regular release and so it became itself as the title states.

Great impression is made by the track that lasts by almost the half of the not so short album, called El Caracol. It's here that you can best feel this impro, very much jazzy but still extremely atmospheric vibe of the band. And the album climaxes in A Street Scene and its chaotically instrumental cacophony.

It Will Become Itself costs 10 AUD.

Check: A Street Scene

Country: California, US

Genre: jazzy post-rock
Label: Art as Catharsis

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Big Dead - Bone White Branches (2019) EN

Big Dead debuted three years ago with a short album Shell and it met with a great response from the audience. Now they go further with a really long-play album called Bone White Branches.

The Australians' music can't be unambiguously defined. Fortunately we are helped by the artists themselves saying that they play "original compositions influenced by the art rock, jazz and electronic sound-worlds" i dalej, "(they) swap between synths and saxophones, lilting vocals and punching drums, crafting songs that sound foreign yet somehow feel familiar". In short: absolute, lively and super rich psychedelia meeting melancholic vocals and dream pop compositions.

Very shoegaze aura is also present in those tracks where the music comes to the clearly jazzy territory both in the ballad ones like Reside and in those more bar-like relaxing ones Petrichor. 

Bone White Branches costs 12 AUD.

Check: First/Last

Country: Australia

Genre: dream pop psychedelia

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Big Dead - Bone White Branches (2019) PL

Big Dead debiutowali trzy lata temu krótką płytą Shell, co spotkało się z życzliwym przyjęciem. Teraz idą za ciosem pokazując swój pierwszy naprawdę długo-grający album Bone White Branches.

Muzykę Australijczyków trudno jednoznacznie sklasyfikować. Trochę pomagają opisy samego zespołu: "własne kompozycje inspirowane art rockiem, jazzem i elektronicznymi światami" i dalej, "lawirują między synthami i saksofonem, melodyjnymi wokalami i uderzeniami perkusji, tworząc piosenki brzmiące obco, a zarazem jakoś znajomo". W skrócie: absolutna, rozbrykana i przebogata psychodelia spotyka melancholijny wokal i dreampopowe kompozycje.

Bardzo shoegaze'ową aurę mają też kawałki , w których muzyka wkracza wyraźnie na jazzowe terytorium, zarówno te bardziej balladowe jak Reside, czy autentycznie barowo-relaksacyjne jak Petrichor. 

Bone White Branches kosztuje 33 złote (12 AUD).

Sprawdź: First/Last

Kraj: Australia

Szufladka: dream pop psychedelia

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All India Radio - Moviestar EP (2019) EN

Established around Martin Kennedy band All India Radio is around already for over 20 years and released around 40 (!) albums. It's an astonishing result and it's worth congratulating the musicians by listening to the short EP Moviestar from July.

In the colourful description of their works, Kennedy states that inspirations are drawn from Lynch, Pink Floyd, Radiohead or Boards of Canada. Some of them are visible already on the cover art aesthetics, some also in the music. Kennedy and co. play sample infused post-rock with easy-to-sppot psychedelic and even jazz. There are some heavier guitar riffs but they appear very seldom (Immortality, Pt. 2), still however, the tracks' compositions and movie samples suggest deeper post-rock connections.

It's worth noting that the first two tracks are going to appear on the long play releasing in October and called Eternal.

Moviestar costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: Moviestar

Country: Australia

Genre: jazzy psychedelic post-rock

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All India Radio - Moviestar EP (2019) PL

Założona wokół Martina Kennedy'ego formacja All India Radio już od 20-tu lat i wydała około czterdziestu (!) albumów. To niezwykły wyczyn, a pogratulować można muzykom słuchając znakomitej chociaż krótkiej EP-ki Moviestar z lipca tego roku. 

W barwnym podsumowaniu swojej twórczości Kennedy pisze o inspiracjach czerpanych od Lyncha, Pink Floyd, Radiohead czy Boards of Canada. Część z nich widać już w samej estetyce cover artu, część wyraźnie w muzyce. Kennedy i spółka gra nasycony samplami post-rock z łatwo wyczuwalnymi elementami psychodelii, a nawet jazzu. Mocniejsze riffy pojawiają się rzadko (Immortality, Pt. 2), ale kompozycje kawałków i sample wyjęte z filmów mocno sugerują post-rockowe inspiracje muzyków.

Warto dodać, ze dwa pierwsze kawałki pojawią się też na zapowiedzianej na październik płycie Eternal.

Moviestar kosztuje tyle, ile zapłacisz.

Sprawdź: Moviestar

Kraj: Australia

Szufladka: jazzy psychedelic post-rock

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