Skuund - Social Animal (2022)

As far as I know, it is the second Polish band that is being released by one of my favourite labels, Shore Dive Records. Skuund are from the Northern Poland and successfully combine at least two guitar-based genres, something that is all too well visible at their second (and first one recorded in English) album called Social Animal. 

This is either unorthodox post-punk or unorthodox noise rock. The album opens with a post-rock-like intro that offers a good deal of engaging guitar music, but it is followed by Alaska (my favourite track here) that is reigned by the Martin Howard's post-punk vocals (with a hint of Editors' Tom Smith) and socially engaged lyrics. This song is the best show case of the band's fantastic ability to write super catchy melodies that, at the same time, are strikingly moody and gloomy. Often based on repeated phrases (like in You Can't Hide Forever), with lyrics that usually point at the listener, engaging them even more. The vocals, the melodies, but also the quality of the guitars' sound is top-notch. I'd say this is what drove me to this album, the heaviness and dark energy that flows out of the instrumental parts with It Wasn't What You Took and Bad Days as the best examples.

Social Animal costs 5 USD (though the label's Bandcamp).

Check: Alaska 

Country: Poland

Genre: noisy post-punk

Label: Shore Dive Records

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City of Dawn - As the Universe, So the Soul (2022)

Damien Duque creates so many things, very often cooperating with other artists, like it was the case on Wander performed with zakè, the album he appeared on this blog with two years ago. This year, the Texas-based artist released, among many other things, this beautiful album called As the Universe, So the Soul.

As the title suggests, the music here feels very spiritual. The ambient soundscapes have very meditation-inducing abilities and this is certainly not a coincidence as the artist himself states that his music "will invite you into a meditational estate that is self-exploring" and this journey "can lead toward healing". The way the mind floats and relaxes while listening to this music, is certainly the most important thing about the album. But it can also be tear-jerkingly beautiful if you can submerge yourself within those waves.

As the Universe, So the Soul costs 7 USD.

zakè & City of Dawn - Wander (2020)

Check: Layers Unseen

Country: Texas, US

Genre: spiritual soundscape

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Flower and Pines - Hnieŭ (2022)

Jegor Mickiewicz and Sasha Pushkin are based in Wrocław and create this extremely unique music that combines a lot from a lot of genres. And then some. It's no wonder that the artists' names are also the names of the most important writers in Poland (Adam Mickiewicz) and in Russia (Alexander Pushkin). Their new EP, Hnieŭ, is certainly one of the most interesting releases in Poland this year.

This is not an ordinary album, it's said to be "sonic performance" that is meant to be a "memorial service and an ode to courage". The fact that it is performed in Belarusian, the forbidden language in the modern Belarus, only provides a broader context and explains whose courage it is meant to praise. The noisy and experimental on many levels music has some of the east sacral vibe that is certainly only strengthen by the impressive and very original vocals. It is folk, it is dark, there's so many things going on in the backgrounds and each of them adds to the overall mysterious atmosphere. 

Hnieŭ costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: Hnieŭ II

Country: Poland

Genre: dark folk noise

Label: Geertruida

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Darkfield - Reanimated Voices (2022)

Joey Westerlund already appeared on this blog two years ago with his album Carry Us Away. This year it's time for the third position in his discography with the new release called Reanimated Voices.

His solo post-rock music is based on the rough electric guitar sounds that contrast the very prog rock-like keyboard tunes. It's both dark and rocky and beautiful at the same time. The main theme for the album is said to be mental health, "emotions you feel or "voices" that you hear during various moments and periods of your life" - according to the artist's words. As the title of the first song suggests: it's all about chemicals, but the complex structures of the compositions on the album hint that there's way more to the topic. As in Copacetic where the attractive key notes are being devoured by very satisfying and loud guitars only to soon get back to the calm in Divided. However, the most interesting things happen towards the end of the album with Control's very modern feel and World Eater's satisfying crescendo.

Reanimated Voices costs 8 USD.

Darkfield - Carry Us Away (2020)

Check: World Eater

Country: Oregon, US

Genre: prog post-rock

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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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Watchcamp Best Singles of May-June'22 with atmos bloom, Midpoint Union, Onira, The Palace of Tears, Redloz

atmos bloom - daisy

The first single from the incoming album that will follow the band's 2020 debut EP; the Curtis Paterson and Tilda Gratton duo from Manchester present a super airy indie pop that is so very, very catchy. The song costs 1 USD.

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Midpoint Union - Beyond Days

Pedro R. is from Portugal and his music combines synth-based, lively and melodic backgrounds with vocals that in turn combine dream pop's subtle sound with post-punk's vibes all over them. Two songs stay in your head from the very first time you hear them. They cost whatever you want to pay.

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Onira - What's to Fear?

Carefree and tune-rich indie pop with a lo-fi-kind-of noise all over it - this is the Californian band who have recently released their debut single/short EP. Three brief songs cost whatever you want to pay.

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The Palace of Tears - Tears of the Moon v​.​2

The Erick r. Scheid and L.V. Darkling duo from New Orleans create a super interesting take on darkwave music: minimal and atmospheric backgrounds and vocals that range from suggestive whispers to opera-like beautiful singing. Two years after their debut, they are releasing a short but very meaningful EP. Two tracks cost whatever you want to pay.

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Redloz - Ungatz

The Dutch artist Bart de Groot, together with Jonny Parlett who provided vocals, created this airy and melodic piece of dream pop. Two versions of the song cost 2 EUR.

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Holy Hum - Let It Be Desire (2022)

Five years ago, Andrew Lee released his brilliant second album All of My Bodies and stole my music heart. Since then, he seems to have moved to New York but the music he offers hasn't changed much. There's no vocals this time, but the complex instrumental side speaks for itself on Let It Be Desire.

This album feels extremely intimate with all those imperfect sounds and noises all over the place, with many silent interruptions, with the clearly audible soul poured into the compositions. They are neoclassically beautiful but also a bit noisy, very experimental, clearly meant to ask questions rather than provide answers. It's poetry turned into music and as such, it goes so well with the poem the artist mentions on his Bandcamp account, a poem in which he that states that "I have lived most of my life in the spaces of becoming". 

Let It Be Desire costs 9 USD.

Holy Hum - All Of My Bodies (2017)

Check: Faith in Doubt

Country: New York, US

Genre: experimental neoclassical

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