Browsing Tag

Desperate Journalist

Shoegaze collides with post-punk in The Silent Era’s latest visceral vortex, Oscillations

Posted on 15 October 2024

With powerhouse vocals that follow in the ethereally haunting footsteps of Desperate Journalist filtering into the monochromatic shoegaze meets post-punk atmosphere, the latest single from The Silent Era will leave you spellbound, scintillated, and desperate in anticipation for their debut album, Wide and Deep and Cold.

The engorging walls of sound, glistens of goth rock glamour, vortexes of kaleidoscopic mesmerism, angular guitar notes and pulsative percussion pull together in the radio edit of Oscillations to pour an alchemic cocktail which may pay ode to pioneers of post-punk and shoegaze, but there’s no mistaking The Silent Era’s own ingenuity within the aching authenticity of the single.

If Oscillations feels this good through headphones, the live experience will undoubtedly leave you kneeling at the altar of The Silent Era.

Stream the official lyric video for Oscillations on YouTube now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Lindsey Black came ‘Undone’ with superlative grace in her sublimely evocative indie rock record

Posted on 11 March 2023
flight by Lindsey Black

Indie rock siren of a songstress Lindsey Black borrowed a few shoegaze elements to amplify the arrestive beguile in her latest independently released single, Undone, which hit the airwaves on February 3rd. As the single progresses, tinges of Americana amplify the sincerity of the soul exhibited in the candourous serenade that features on her second studio album, flight.

Any fans of Desperate Journalist and The Twilight Sad will easily succumb to the pensively sublime orchestration of Undone, which also carries hints of the Manic Street Preachers’ more soulfully reaching records. With Graeme Young in the iconic Chamber Studios in Edinburgh in charge of the recording for the sophomore album, it was never going to fall flat, but only a voice as serenely vulnerable as Lindsey Black’s could reach so transcendently high.

Undone is now available to stream and purchase via Bandcamp.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Zara Shahzad takes us through a dream-pop descent with her latest single, Fall from Grace

Posted on 6 January 2022

London-based singer-songwriter, Zara Shahzad, has released her eagerly-anticipated ethereally sweet indie dream-pop single, Fall from Grace. With nuances of shoegaze and trip-hop combined, the 21-year-old artist broke new aural ground with the deeply visceral single that unfolds around entrancing beats and reverb-laden angular guitars. Light and dark textures weave inexplicably together, never letting the melancholy overpower the sense of strength that Zara exhibits in the vulnerable release.

Any fans of Desperate Journalist and Cultdreams will undoubtedly want to add Fall from Grace to their new wave shoegaze and dream-pop playlists.

Fall from Grace is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Fox Evades – soaring, spacious dreampop with ‘Someday’

Posted on 24 June 2021

Fox Evades is the solo project of Manchester-born singer songwriter and producer Jordan Mae. Following up the success of debut single ‘The Heart That Drowned’ and follow-up ‘Bira’, both of which garnered interest from BBC Introducing’s Hannah Fletcher, comes third single ‘Someday’.

A soaring, spacious three minutes of echoey dream-pop, reminiscent of Desperate Journalist, Belly, Slowdive, or The Cure, ‘Someday’ is deliciously gentle and atmospheric, tangibly breakable and ethereal, with a picked repeating guitar line that could have come straight from Three Imaginary Boys or Seventeen Seconds, and Mae’s haunting, delicate voice evocative of Tanya Donelly or Toni Halliday on vocal duties.

It’s truly excellent, and a beautiful, ephemeral taster for Fox Evades’ debut EP due out later this year. You can hear Someday on Spotify; follow Fox Evades on Facebook and Instagram.

Review by Alex Holmes