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Shoegaze

Strange Things became the heirs to sonic obscurity with their vintage psych rock tour de force, Witness to the Apathy Gospel / Approaching Mindfulness

Posted on 1 June 2023

With the same fuzzy psychedelic alchemy that would be tasted in the notes of a cocktail of The Zombies, Sonic Youth, and Wire, the standout single, Witness to the Apathy Gospel / Approaching Mindfulness from Strange Things’ LP, In That Light of Fading Day will leave you intoxicated from the first time you savour the vintage tones.

The melting pot of psych, shoegaze and experimental noise, influenced by the likes of The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Telescopes and The Stooges, ensured that the LP from the Canadian connoisseurs of sonic obscurity was far from the ordinary lockdown-born albums that proliferated the airwaves when amateur hour seemed to stretch out in perpetuity.

Beneath the sludgy swathes of effects are some serious songwriting chops, written in the way the progressions immerse you even deeper in the vintage psych outpour of grief for the victims of the Uvalde County shooting.

Closing the single on headily distorted Eastern rhythms was the cherry on the sonic dissonance cake. Stream Witness to the Apathy Gospel / Approaching Mindfulness for yourselves via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

dollhaus debuted their dream-goth potion of hell-hath-no-fury vindication, The Devil Makes a Sale

Posted on 12 April 2023

Two superlative staples of the London alt-scene, Katie Green & Rob Alexander, joined reverent post-punk forces to forge the new two-piece outfit dollhaus; the debut single, The Devil Makes a Sale, will leave you questioning, Siouxsie who?

Rhythmic hypnotism constructs the whirling dervish of a prelude before the guitars contort into angular prisms of kaleidoscopic colour as the basslines add dark depth around the harbingering percussion that punctuates the dreamy layers Katie Green’s glassy vocals filter into.

Chewing up and spitting out the archetypes attached to the dream-pop, post-punk, goth, and art-rock genres enabled dollhaus to effortlessly establish themselves as one to watch in a saturated scene. If anyone can appetise an apathetic alternative audience, it is dollhaus with this inordinately magnetic manifestation of pure songwriting talent that drinks like a potion of hell-hath-no-fury vindication.

Stream the Devil Makes a Sale on Spotify & Bandcamp.

Follow dollhaus on Facebook and Instagram.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Q-Days – Underboard: Alt-90s Nostalgia Has Never Been Kaleidoscopically Sweeter

Posted on 7 April 2023

The Brighton-based alt-rock outfit, The Q-Days, is driving nostalgia into the next generation of British guitar music with their dreamy kaleidoscopic 90s Britpop-kicked tones and cathartically honeyed vocal lines. Their latest single, Underboard, is sweeter than Sally Cinnamon under the duress of the choral progressions that lick anthemic soul into every honed note.

With escapism, freedom of expression and euphoria as their triadic ethos, they stand for everything we should be giving an ovation to in the UK right now. It’s the pits, but one thing is for sure, our polluted waters are the perfect breeding ground for prodigal sons of rock n roll that salvation seekers will want to flock to.

After spending their foundling days developing their craft before it reached the airwaves and live stages, The Q-Days were always going to be primed to make a killer debut. So far, they’ve opened for Youth Killed It, The Rifles, and Bilk, but if any breakthrough act is definitively headliner material, it’s The Q-Days.

Underboard will officially release on April 7th. Check it out on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Frances Cleave explored the Pepsi and Coke of suffering with her Southern Gothic single, ‘Freedom vs. Loneliness’.

Posted on 4 April 2023

The sophomore single, Freedom vs Loneliness, from the indie songstress Frances Cleave, is an ethereally arrestive shoegazey Clannad-ESQUE exploration of sufferance. The 21-year-old singer-songwriter takes inspiration from her haunted city of Charleston, SC; it doesn’t get much more Southern Gothic than her latest single, which will drive you to breaking point in the presence of her harbingering vocal lines that effortlessly gel with the phantasmally reverb-soaked pensive synths and evocatively plucked acoustic guitar strings.

The lyrics subtly explore the triadic trauma imparted by religious trauma, sexualisation and objectification but there’s enough ambiguity within the lyricality for the listener to apply their own contexts of freedom and loneliness. It’s a poignant reminder that the grass isn’t always greener, especially when the ground is hallowed whichever way you turn.

We can’t wait to hear what else she has in the melancholic pipeline; her debut LP is due for release late 2023, following her next single, which is primed for release in May.

Freedom v Loneliness debuted on April 1. Stream it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Sonica unveiled their ethereally experimental shoegaze revival, Wait for Me

Posted on 11 February 2023

With one of the most experimental revivalist approaches to Shoegaze known to the airwaves, the Perth-based outfit, Sonica, easily set their lush reverb-swathed tones apart from the rest. Intent on not being another Lush, Ride, or Curve replica act, Sonica found innovative ways of distorting their dream pop melodies without bursting the semi-lucid bubble

The bleeding vocals from Claire Turton stand up to the mesmeric plate, containing the same ethereal beguile as Cocteau Twins and Siouxsie and the Banshees in the moody standout single, Wait for Me, which pushes grungy tones into the midst of the euphonic kaleidoscopic accordance. Leaving ample space for the gritty and cold timbre of 80s post-punk, the four-piece revisited the golden era of shoegaze by taking a route never tread before.

Wait for Me is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Under the Sun – Ocean Breeze: an ambient dreamwork of Lynchian cogitation

Posted on 11 January 2023
Ocean Breeze by Under The Sun

Adding a disarming new trajectory to the evolution of shoegaze, the Suffolk-based originator Under the Sun (Matt Catling) constructed an ambient dreamwork of Lynchian cogitation with their three-track release Ocean Breeze.

As hazy as the titular allusion, the opening title single carries the weight of driftwood as it traverses through the meditatively industrial layers of reprising synths and delay-filtered dreamy guitars. Mastered by none other than Simon Scott (Slowdive), Ocean Breeze is a scintillating adaption of the origins of ambient soundscapes, modernised through the essence of caustic 21st-century dystopia that leaks into the transcendence of the track.

The arrestive rhythms in Ocean Breeze are a testament to Under the Sun’s ability to create sonic worlds far more accommodating than the ones we’re physically bound to. Short of taking a trip to the 5th dimension, there’s no better escapism than the sanctity that flows just as mellifluously through the following singles, Whirlwind and Soft Focus.

With Whirlwind unravelling as a tribally psychonautic fever dream and Soft Focus exhibiting Branca-Esque tendencies enveloped by the bleeding lament of the vocals, it’s an evocative conclusion to a release you don’t realise how deeply you have enmeshed with until silence falls.

Stream Ocean Breeze on SoundCloud and Spotify, or purchase the release via Bandcamp.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Bleach Bath – Branches: The Only Sludge Pop Debut You Need To Year This Year

Posted on 20 December 2022

With the rhythm section dripping as much sex appeal as the most aphrodisiacal tracks on the Deftones’ White Pony album, the alt-90s oozing from the droning walls of shoegaze guitars that have been distorted out-of-kilter and the killer sludgy pop hooks, the debut single, Branches, from the Tennessee-based artist, Bleach Bath, is beyond promising.

The tinges of emo to the lyricism, which runs through the insecurities that every girl will have battled with at some age, ensured Bleach Bath came out with all vulnerable guns blazing. It is impossible not to get on a level with the singer-songwriter and band frontwoman who has been tearing up stages across Tennessee, priming herself to make an unforgettable debut.

Any fans of Honeyblood, Wolf Alice, Ex Hex, Hole and My Bloody Valentine won’t want to skip this grungy kaleidoscopic dream of uninhibited angst and relatable uncertainty.

Branches was officially released on December 2nd. Check it out on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Minneapolis Shoegaze Revivalists, Lumari, Look into The ‘Neon Mirror’ in Their Inexplicably Alchemic Latest Single

Posted on 11 November 2022
Lumari

Pull yourself away from your Souvlaki, Loveless and Whirlpool albums and sink into the sublime reverb-drenched alchemy in the Minneapolis Dream Pop powerhouse, Lumari’s latest single, Neon Mirror.

With just a touch more intensity in the droning guitars that cradle the ethereally demure soul in Margo Pearson’s vocals which caress you on a multi-sensory level, Lumari achieved what so few shoegaze revivalists manage in this beguile-some release. They stayed true to the originator’s sound while throwing in plenty of their own post-modern flavour.

With touches of I Wanna Be Adored in the downward spirals of pulsating rhythm, there’s nostalgia to be here for sure; there’s also an unpredictability to the structuring of the inexplicably gripping release that stands testament to their songwriting and instrumental prowess.

Prior to founding Lumari, the founding members, Dave and Dan West could be found in the punk scene, opening for Green Day, NOFX and the Offspring. Once their tastes matured into an affinity for post-modern rock and Britpop, they teamed up with shoegaze lover Robert Caple and producer Eric Olson before completing the outfit with Margo Pearson.

Neon Mirror will officially release on November 11th. Hear it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Belfast’s deafeningly ethereal shoegazers, Virgins, have launched their fever dream of an EP, transmit a little heaven.

Posted on 14 October 2022

October 14th, 2022, was a good day for shoegaze fans with the launch of the debut EP, transmit a little heaven, from the Belfast-based shoegazers Virgins. The up-and-coming trailblazers preach from the Smashing Pumpkins school of riffy ethereal dream pop, with colourful nods to Ride and the swirling choral textures of MBV.

In the title single, the crafters of sonic spectres simultaneously stayed true to the golden era of shoegaze with the signature lush reverb-wrapped walls of guitars and stayed true to their own authenticity through the cuttingly angular synaesthesia-inducing tonal hues that redact any hint of assimilation. The effortlessly outreaching vocals of Rebecca Dow that sting with emotion keep the lexicon clear just above the hazy euphonic guitars from Michael Smyth. The aural chemistry is more than palpable.

Listen to Virgins’ debut EP, released via Blowtorch Records, on Bandcamp & Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Sweetspeak – Light Ruined Dark: A Warped Soundtrack to a Lynchian Fever Dream.

Posted on 12 October 2022

Testing the boundaries of rock n roll, the alt-rock band, Sweetspeak released their 2022 album, Signal Interception #186-Q7. The standout single, Light Ruined Dark, is the first feat of psychedelic experimentalism I’ve heard in a LONG time that isn’t tainted with derivative assimilation.

The distorted psychedelic blues tones would be reminiscent of a remaster of Fleetwood Mac’s Albatross… if the tape was fed through a meatgrinder. Sounding like two singles being played at different speeds simultaneously with bleeding vocals in the vein of Shoegaze artists, Light Ruined Dark really shouldn’t work, but God damn, it does. The immense guitar sound is practically an aphrodisiac.

Light Ruined Dark was officially released on October 5th. Check it out on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast