cash - deluged (2022)

As far as I know, Cash debuted as an artist focused mostly on piano compositions. And while he was really good at this, those times are long gone. The India-born musician is now way more interested in the electronic sounds ranging freely from trip-hop to ambient and he proves it on his third album called deluged.

The synthy ambient soundscapes (a world of difference) are presented against the very trip-hop songs like submerged, creating together a unique experience that brings everything electronic music can be liked for. But it doesn't mean that Cash lost interest in the beauty of keys either: you can easily hear how good they sound in the bass-heavy asphyxia and the calmer plumeria. And the further the album goes, the more neoclassical it gets. The pace gets down, the subtle beauty of piano keys goes up. The airiness and the nostalgia-inducing ability of the album's finish is really something to go back to.

deluged costs 7 USD.

c a s h, 4lienetic - Abstract (2019)

c a s h - collision course (2019)

Cash - The Sounds My Heart Makes EP (2018)

Check: deluged (rework)

Country: Massachusetts, US

Genre: moody electronica

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Anna Arrobas - Made to Touch (2022)

Anna Arrobas, a Montreal-based artist, creates some hauntingly beautiful ballads that reside somewhere within the experimental art pop genre. Together with her band, the Canadian released her first album last month and it's a real deal of the moody, 

The Opener in Heart of Stone makes a beautiful promise for this album to be as moody as it is emotional and, simply, beautiful. However, from my experience, many artists like opening their albums this way, as a sort of an ornament, and then proceed with more mainstream pop content. Not this time though, as Arrobas continues with her atmospheric, nearly ambient pop. She uses her soft voice, additionally dispersed in a very dream pop manner, to lead us through this nostalgic and gloomy art realm. There's no doubt that her slow-paced compositions are meant to be very much of the experimental nature. The accents are put on creating the eerie but also enchanting atmosphere, rather than being particularly catchy or melodic. 

In this way, it is very ambient pop-like, there's, however, more to the instrumental side of the project. There's both guitar and synthesizer sounds, not to mention a guest accordion from time to time, but the music is still far from being overwhelming. The subtle backgrounds make it clear that in this art pop, art is more important than pop. And no song is a better example of this than the spoken word-filled Vœu that closes the album.

Made to Touch costs 7.5 EUR (10 CAD).

Check: Vœu

Country: Canada

Genre: dreamy art pop

Label: Éditions Appærent

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Departing / Serein - Elegy (2022)

Some music is meant to convey certain feelings and messages. Like it is with this kind of dark drone soundscape from the split release by Departing and Serein. 

I can't say much about the two artists but this album was born out of death of someone they cared about so much that this sudden loss lead to the sonic way of mourning. The two tracks are filled with drone soundscapes that are as dark as the feeling of loss and so touching as well. The music here is static and cold, filled with sadness and regret. I can't think of a better way of expressing those.

Elegy costs 1 USD.

Check: The Emptiness in Loss

Country: Pennsylvania, US

Genre: dark drone

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Submotile - One Final Summit Before the Fall (2022)

The Italian-Irish duo released their last album only a year ago and they are back again with the third one in their discography, ominously called One Final Summit Before the Fall. And I have to say, I dig the sound they achieve: the very noisy, very energetic kind of noise rock.

This sound is mostly the result of the extremely noisy and overwhelming guitar walls of noise that appear all over the album, ready to crush you in this sad but up-lifting kind of hug. Daniela Angione's dreamy, dispersed vocals have to fight their way through this guitar blizzard and these are the moments when I say "this is the shoegaze sound", especially in places like Resonica's finish.. And all of this doesn't mean that Submotile's music is not melodic. I don't know how they manage to produce this noisy but also fast-paced and melodic music so well. The overall feeling of the album certainly revolves around chaotic noise, overwhelming sound but also melodic rock and I like this combination a lot.

One Final Summit Before the Fall costs 7 USD.

Submotile - Sonic Day Codas (2021)

Check: From First Light Until Our Final Sleep

Country: Ireland/Italy

Genre: noise rock

Label: Shelflife

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OSNOVA - OSNOVA (2022)

The California-based trio OSNOVA are the newest dreamy music explorers from this region. They released their debut self-titled EP recently, showing some good, oneiric pop/rock skills.

I love the way Caroline McLaughlin's vocals' airy sound works with the music here. The artists propose a decent amount of noisy backgrounds, from time to time changing the vibes to more acoustic rock-like, but overall, mostly within the noisy realm. The bass lines are also surprisingly often well-audible. That's also why this is the kind of music that takes on the dreamy appearance where it fits but doesn't shy away from going towards the more indie rock direction. It could definitely be of better quality sound-wise, but perhaps it's good enough for the debut. Also, I love the album's finish in Solicitation (They're Coming On).

OSNOVA costs 4.99 USD.

Check: Solicitation (They're Coming On)

Country: California, US

Genre: dreamy indie rock

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Lucid Express - Floret (2022)

From the far away land of Hong Kong, "young dreamers creating a stunningly airy blend of shoegaze and indie pop", known as Lucid Express, hail. They have recently released their second album, following the really good debuting self-titled one, and called it Floret.

The five artists are devoted to creating soft and dreamy pop music that strikes with their slow pace and moody atmosphere. There's a decent amount of noise accompanying the guitar, not overwhelming, melodies and the withdrawn, very much dispersed female vocals. So everything we love in dream pop music. The album is actually a four-tracks-long EP but it is enriched with another five remixes and, I must say, it does feel like one whole album. Perhaps it's because the listener does not focus on separate songs that much as the whole album offers a blissful, dreamy experience. It's very well audible in Venture, where the music and the vocals reach this psychedelic, dreamy state of trance-like sound that last up to the end of the "EP" part of the album.

Floret costs 6.99 USD.

Check: Venture

Country: Hong Kong

Genre: dream pop

Label: Kanine Records

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Lost in Kiev - Rupture (2022)

It's been already three years since the French post-rockers of Lost in Kiev released the fantastic Persona and already a decade since their debut album Motions. To mark this milestone, the band shows their fourth LP called Rupture.

And, truth be told, it is mostly kept in the style they managed to get us used to already: the guitar post-rock filled with modern and exciting electronica up to the lid. As the guitars are really meant to be overwhelming and pretty dark-sounding, at least at the beginning, the lighter synthy side balances the resulting music perfectly. The material was recorded live and it may be the reason behind this energetic and engaging sound. The artists claim to dedicate this album to the environmental fight and "eco-angst" we all experience more and more these days - interestingly enough, they convey this in very modern-sounding way. And not that dark after all.

Because the further the album goes, the lighter, more melodic the compositions become. All of them are only instrumental, the only exception is the second track here, Prison of Mind, which reveals the album's guest star, The Ocean's vocalist, Loïc Rossetti and... it's honestly my least favourite track. On Rapture and generally in the French band's discography. The post-hardcore-like vocals don't match the complex music of Lost in Kiev as I see it. Or maybe I just really don't like this kind of vocals.

Rupture costs whatever you want to pay.

Lost in Kiev - Persona (2019)

Check: We Are

Country: France

Genre: modern post-rock

Label: Pelagic

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