Browsing Tag

shoegaze

Chris Koehn urges us to be more grateful on the soothing ‘Sympatheia’

Posted on 15 May 2022

Taken off his much-awaited upcoming EP, Chris Koehn shows that wonderfully genuine compassion which is missing from the mainstream on his latest single to win over your heart, ‘Sympatheia‘.

Chris Koehn is a Mexico City, Mexico-based indie shoegaze singer-songwriter, music producer and architect who is on a mission to help others live their life in a way that is free from materialism.

“The freer from our attachments we are, the happier our life will be.” ~ Chris Koehn

Bringing us a real reminder to be truly kind to yourself as the soul you have inside you is asking for your understanding, Chris Koehn sends us a true love letter that should be heard far and wide, rather than being harsh and evil to your consciousness that wants a warm embrace.

”After experiencing his brother`s death, Chris Koehn architect & singer/songwriter/ producer entered a musical journey as an introspective grieving process. Seeing the healing power its music had over him and others, he started to share and work on his music to help other people feel & heal together.” ~ Chris Koehn

‘Sympatheia‘ from Mexico City, Mexico-based indie shoegaze singer-songwriter, music producer and architect Chris Koehn is a calming blend of mellow sounds that shows us that being kind to yourself is the key to life, rather than worrying about things that don’t actually matter. Sung with true control and a mellow style, this is a tranquil song that should get you in a meditative state, that is far away from those silly stresses that can dampen your mood into a coldness that is so unnecessary.

Listen up to this new single on Spotify and check out his IG for more.

Reviewed by Llewelyn Screen

Mallaigh Ashton made the alt-90s her own with her latest dreampop single, With a Song

Posted on 4 March 2022

NYC-hailing singer-songwriter, Mallaigh Ashton, made the alt-90s her own in her indie dream-pop release, With a Song. Reminiscences of Mazzy Star are there, but nothing about With a Song feels fractionally assimilative. There’s a real sense that part of the alchemy in this track is from Ashton’s creative passion and unfiltered poetry spilling into a mic.

Her vocals get just enough prominence in the release to give the cutting lyricism on in-love-anxiety a firm hold on your heartstrings but there’s still enough synergy with the soft shoegaze guitars to give With a Song an almost phantasmal mellifluous air as it alludes to just how fragile love can make you.

As a staunch shoegaze fan, it is always daunting discovering new up and coming artists borrowing tones from the alt 90s, but the cynicism soon faded after hitting play on With a Song. Mallaigh Ashton is a matchlessly breath-taking artist.

With a Song is due for official release on March 4th; you can check it out for yourselves via SoundCloud and Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Life is but a dark dream in Fox Evades’ latest indie-pop single, Strange Forever

Posted on 27 February 2022

If you ever needed definitive proof that no city breeds dark indie like Manchester, delve into the atmosphere in Fox Evades’ latest single, Strange Forever.

With a beguiling vocal style reminiscent of Jo Bevan from Desperate Journalist paired with the instrumentals that will remind you why you fell for post-punk and new wave in the first place, Strange Forever is an indulgent hit of tonal nostalgia.

When it comes to the substance in this viscerally evocative confession, Fox Evades well and truly stands in a league of their own. There comes a time in every outlier’s life when we acknowledge that we will never grow into normalcy; Strange Forever captures those cutting feelings while unifying the similarly minded with the lyrical affirmation that it’s a choice to be alone.

Strange Forever will officially release on February 25th. You can check it out for yourselves by heading over to SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Demure dream-pop royalty, speakeazie has released her debut album, Prohibition Hippie

Posted on 25 February 2022

The Minneapolis-based alt dream-pop artist that is never short of mesmeric material, speakeazie, has released her highly anticipated debut album, Prohibition Hippie, featuring the standout single, Disintegrate, which spins an engrossing narrative tale of a young girl losing control. Anyone that has ever felt their mask of sanity slip will undoubtedly want to delve into this compassionately orchestrated single.

Disintegrate shares a tonal palette with Echo and the Bunnymen’s earlier material. But with the instrumentals distorted via the wobbly tape delay effect, the bedroom pop single takes an authentically demure form.

speakeazie’s vocals parallel the evocative power of Florence Welch while keeping in line with the contemporary moody indie-pop vocal trend. By that we mean they are alchemic leagues ahead. Also written into Disintegrate’s mix is speakeazie’s influence of dreamy retro aesthetics and the 1920s. It is inarguably one of the most distinctive releases that we have heard so far this year.

speakeazie’s debut album is now available to stream on Spotify. Or you can check out the video on YouTube. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Drood bring the ritualistic catharsis in ‘It Must Needs Wither’.

Posted on 30 January 2022
The Drood

The essence of The Drood’s latest single, It Must Needs Wither is a captured ritual. An invitation to cherish the memories of the many lives lost in the years leading up to this Shakespearean release that took inspiration from the tragic play Othello.

For their ritualistically cathartic release, the Denver, Colorado-based electronic duo, used post-rock, Eastern psych and industrial for their dreamy textures. For the vocals, they opted for an ethereal quiescent timbre to rival the harmonic ambience in the dreamiest Beach House and Slowdive releases.

The haunting explorative progressions carry cynical lament while light transcendent textures bring comfort to the affirmation that for all of our artifices, we’re still the same primal creatures. Primal creatures plagued by the vulnerability of mortality and the psychological afflictions that drive us to acts of madness that are all too easily romanticised in our minds.

It Must Needs Wither will officially release on January 25th, 2022. You can check it out for yourselves via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Goonmetal has released his addictively authentic alt-indie single, For the Moment

Posted on 26 December 2021
https://soundcloud.com/goonmetal/for-the-moment-ft-treistemm?si=78b4791b773a4fa19a9f02fc0accf788&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

With the same floods of bleeding reverb as Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine mixed with the indie jangle-pop melodies and trap pop sensibilities, Goonmetal’s latest single, For the Moment, featuring Treistemm, is a fiery feat of constraint-less experimentalism. It hits the visceral spot whilst leaving you utterly transfixed in the aural chaos as choral tones come up against caustic ones.

The white-hot guitars cut through the mix just as efficaciously as they did in Interpol’s debut record. But there is an accessible lo-fi edge to all of Goonmetal’s tracks that prove his interest in commercial success fell by the wayside as the need for expression took the lead throughout his creative process.

The 18-year-old Glastonbury, CT-hailing artist is a self-taught artist who has made every beat from scratch since making his debut in 2019. He knows exactly how to amplify the raw emotion that is projected into his music. For that reason, he will remain firmly affixed to our radar throughout 2022.

For the Moment is now available to stream via SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Slow Lightning: Mexican band Park Praga drop mesmerizing sky-filled single ‘Tardi Fulgur’

Posted on 25 December 2021

As they glance up above and show us how pretty everything actually is if you look adequately, Park Praga have our minds gazing into that pure beauty that so many people dismiss quickly for some unknown reason on ‘Tardi Fulgur‘.

Park Praga is a mysterious Ciudad Satelite, Mexico-based indie coldwave/shoegaze band with a really mellow style that has you feeling so calm and rather thoughtful after sampling their vibe.

”A mute cartoonist who teamed up with his high school ex-girlfriend’s second husband on his Badminton regional final against a runaway chimp.” ~ Park Praga

There are those rare times when you hear a band that fascinates you so much, you have to take a few listens. Park Praga are that band. Their vocals are hard to work out but it doesn’t matter in the slightest, as they soothe all the worries away that you have kept hidden away for too long.

‘Tardi Fulgur‘ from the Ciudad Satelite, Mexico-based indie coldwave/shoegaze band Park Praga, is a tremendous single that is so pacifying and has your consciousness taking a step back from all the over-stimulation that is so prevalent in current society. With so many of us focusing on our phones, tablets, televisions and laptops, this is a vital reminder to look up and take in the absolutely exquisite view that is often overlooked. Sometimes it’s best to keep things simple, just to support your minds relaxed state and comprehensively embrace that beauty entrenched into the deepest part of your heart.

Check out this new single on Spotify and see more news on the IG page.

Reviewed by Llewelyn Screen

Ger Lane indoctrinates us in ‘The New Revolution in Love’ in his stadium-worthy alt-rock track

Posted on 8 November 2021

Irish-born, London-based Avant Rock artist Ger Lane’s seminal single, The New Revolution in Love, carries enough soul to remind you that you’ve got one of your very own. While the lyrics prise affection, the instrumentals submerge you in a sonorous pool of psych-tinged, shoegazey alt-rock.

The sultry psychotropic track is an obsession-worthy nostalgia trip that will instantly transfix any alt 90s fans. Right from the intro, Zane Scott’s drums arrest your rhythmic pulses with the caustic hits that create visceral friction against the effect-laden angular guitars. With vocals as captivating in their stridency as Chris Cornell’s, abject apathy isn’t an option once you hit play, which may sound hyperbolic in our age of ennui, but if anyone can deliver aural salvation; it is Ger Lane.

As for Tim Bazell’s production, Kevin Shields couldn’t have pulled The New Revolution in Love together better. It should be a paradox for a single soundscape to unravel as visceral and hypnotic simultaneously, but the stadium-ready hit did just that and plenty more. It is enough to make Arcade Fire sound flat and pedestrian.

Check out The New Revolution in Love, featuring the London Brazilian Choir for yourselves by heading over to SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

 

Hope Called in Sick has released their melancholic playlist staple, Lotus.

Posted on 29 October 2021
Hope Called in Sick

Iconic sonic palettes from the 80s and the 90s converge in Hope Called in Sick’s latest single, Lotus; the shimmering synth melodies paired with the layers of accordant shoegazey reverb made it a multi-stop nostalgia hit.

Plenty of contortions have been spun upon the 80s synth sound, but the husband and wife duo, Rob and Monica Schipul, managed to bring brand-new phantasmal energy out of it. Lotus offers a very different brand of ambience; one that reflects our modern malaise and the duo’s Jungian lens through which they see the world.

Check out the latest release from Hope Called in Sick on Bandcamp.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

San Gabriel brings panache to 80s indie-pop through his latest single, Tape Machine.

Posted on 27 October 2021

It was impossible to forget San Gabriel after hearing the luscious guitar tones in his debut single, Another One. Based on his third single, Tape Machine, it’s safe to say that he’s found his signature sound by mixing shimmering shoegaze guitars with 80s dance-pop beats that bring the energy while his angular guitar notes add absorbing layers to his instantly enamouring aural eclecticism.

Listening to Tape Machine instantly becomes a subjective experience as you’re enraptured by the sheer innovation and the magnetically warm vocal timbre that practically bathes you in soul. Despite the striking authenticity in his sound, it’s all too easy to succumb to efficacious hooks in the high vibe poppy hit that masterfully stands leagues apart from other indie newcomers in 2021. If you’re as tired as I am of indie assimilators, you won’t regret hitting play.

Tape Machine is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast