Browsing Tag

Alt Indie

The Glorious Years’ ‘The Darkest Universe’: A Psychedelic Prism Illuminating Post-Punk Nihilism

Posted on 25 April 2025
The Glorious Years

With their debut single, ‘The Darkest Universe‘, The Glorious Years opens a portal to a sonic galaxy where psych, krautrock, new wave, and post-punk coalesce into an aurally rich twilight. Co-produced by the band alongside Euan Hinshelwood (Cate le Bon, Half Japanese), this introduction marks the first glimpse into their upcoming album, ‘Something Beautiful Beyond’.

From the chorally opulent vocals that refract gently through the synth lines, to the subtle yet unwavering melodic pull from the guitars, each note maintains a meticulous tension. The single unravels as an exploration of tonal and textural contrasts—a kaleidoscopic prism of colour chillingly distorted by angular post-punk echoes and distinct influences from 70s and 80s sonic epochs.

There is an irreplicable comfort in the way guitars guide listeners through The Glorious Years’ alchemically orchestrated cosmos while the vocals adjust the listener’s perspective between shadows and illumination. Amidst its layers of nihilism and existential introspection, ‘The Darkest Universe’ acts as an open invitation to briefly abandon reality’s monotony for something more expansive, surreal, and profoundly human.

The Glorious Years set their creative compass towards something uniquely consoling yet philosophically provocative, solidifying their potential as a band adept in traversing the deeper spaces of alternative music.

‘The Darkest Universe’ is now available to stream on all major platforms via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Tequila Wave’s Lies: A Darkwave Post-Punk Sermon from the Shadows of Inner Conflict

Posted on 21 April 2025

You’d be forgiven for thinking that Sisters of Mercy had a new sibling after the emergence of Lies—the darkwave earworm by Tequila Wave that also teases Joy Division-esque guitar lines into the production, where the synths sink percussive gravity into the track as much as the beats. As the moody vox reverberate shadows through the mix, the danceable kinetic energy lends an air of transcendence; an invitation to pull away from the weight of your weary soul and sink rhythmic catharsis into your veins. Tequila Wave may not have reinvented the darkwave post-punk wheel with Lies, but why ruin an already perfect formula when you can inject fresh lifeblood into it?

Channelling discontent and transformation into every brooding note, the Mexican artist Jorge Luis Niño proves that Tequila Wave is far more than an alias—it’s an emotional vessel. With a sound rooted in goth, post-punk, and darkwave, but never limited by them, the artist’s bilingual approach and unfiltered self-expression reach far beyond the surface. The themes aren’t theatrically dressed up—they’re unvarnished truths, stitched into pulsating synths and shivering riffs that hold enough weight to carry listeners through their own internal reckonings.

Where previous releases like Take Away the Mask peeled layers back with surgical precision, and Café offered a deeper look at his cultural identity, Lies digs into the emotional marrow. It’s less of a song, more of a séance.

Lies is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast.

All Violet’s ‘Animals Domestic’ Fires a Sonorous Bullet Through Indie-Rock’s Corporate Cage

Posted on 20 April 2025

Soft yet sonorous, All Violet’s single ‘Animals Domestic’ pulls you into a vortex of emotion refracted like a prism, a kaleidoscope channelling echoes of Pavement, Badly Drawn Boy, and The Goo Goo Dolls, where the jangly edges of 90s alt-indie collide unapologetically with Americana twang. It’s a sound that settles deep in your chest even as its earworm burrows relentlessly deeper, determined to make its home permanent.

Penned as a war cry against the rising corporate tide, dulling our minds and chaining us to cubicles, Animals Domestic is bathed in venomous vitriol spat at advertising overlords and the sportification of politics, questioning the existential malaise that comes from clock-watching and sleepwalking through life. With a hook that laments, “Is this all it means to be alive? Busy counting sheep until you die,” the song confronts modern existence’s psychological confinement head-on, pleading defiantly for something more tangible than neon-lit consumerist illusions.

Anchored by satisfyingly slick riffs and lyrics sharp enough to pierce the facade of commercial comfort, ‘Animals Domestic’ leaves a lingering mark—a salve for anyone who’s bruised themselves trying to decode life’s absurdities. All Violet, fronted fiercely by the enigmatic BT, ensures their indie-rock revolt resonates loud enough to crack corporate cages wide open.

‘Animals Domestic’ is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Shaw Revolver Wrestle Reverie and Reality in ‘Chasin’ My Shadow’

Posted on 12 April 2025

Shaw Revolver is the artistic definition of keeping it in the family—but there’s nothing saccharine about their dynamic. The trio—fronted by the father-daughter triad of Michael, Dresden, and Brielle—harness their natural synergy without ever falling into sentimentality. What they conjure instead is something far more powerful: emotionally charged rock, stripped of ego, driven by instinct.

The layered harmonies in Chasin’ My Shadow come like storm clouds over sunburnt desert guitars—guitars that shift with a chameleonic coolness, bleeding spectral southern rock into gothic textures, then turning on a dime into lines so virtuosically affecting they sound like the subconscious speaking in reverb. It’s a sonic terrain that mirrors the track’s thematic weight: trying to find stillness while wrestling with the shadows trailing behind you.

Chasin’ My Shadow doesn’t just feel like catharsis—it feels like confrontation. A reckoning between dream states and disillusionment, between inner peace and inherited pain. And while I’ll usually brace myself for the insular feel of family bands, Shaw Revolver blew that expectation wide open. Their sound doesn’t lock you out—it drags you right through the heart of their sound.

Since their 2019 debut, Shaw Revolver has toured coast to coast with their travelling acoustic act, but this single proves they’re just as potent when they plug in and wear their souls on their sleeves. Theirs is a rock ethos built on substance, delivered with gravitas, grace, and an unshakable sense of purpose.

Chasin’ My Shadow is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Precious McKenzie – ‘Soft Skin, Screaming’: Alt-Indie Proof Romance Isn’t Dead, It’s Just Nihilistic

Posted on 9 April 2025

Manchester’s Precious McKenzie scratched their 7-year hiatus itch with the release of their single, ‘Soft Skin, Screaming’ on April 7; a precursor to their upcoming EP, which brings with it a promise of more cerebrally Machiavellian lyricality and stylistic ricochets across the alt-indie spectrum.

As an exposition of emotional addiction, hedonic excess and how the intersections between them can lead to the avenue of alienation and desperation to evade apathy, the single opts for realism over resolve, affirming how in the end, we return to dust, and yet, there’s catharsis in the emotive cataclysm which proves that romance isn’t dead, it’s just nihilistic and as dysfunctional as its perpetrators as they chase the impermanence of satisfaction in an era of dystopia.

With a chorus that delivers the visceralism we crave to abstract us from the monotony of unaltered mental states following palpitatingly taut verses of angular guitars fuelling the tension and visualising the anxiety that instils itself in the preludes of indulgence, ‘Soft Skin, Screaming’ is the sharpest blade on the alt-indie execution block in 2025.

Through chameleonic vocals that deliver poetic tender sentimentality, augment into anthemic 00s indie adrenaline, find room to inject sardonic spite and let restraint slip into ether while keeping flawless pitch like an indie crooner on the brink, Soft Skin, Screaming, is a buzzsaw through the mind, body, soul and rhythmic pulses.

Soft Skin, Screaming is now available to stream on all major platforms, including  Spotify and YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Arnold J.’s ‘Eden is Burning’: An Alt-Rock’s Cosmic Elegy to Lost Paradise

Posted on 5 April 2025

Arnold J.’s latest single, ‘Eden is Burning’, allows listeners to imagine Tracy Chapman’s iconic singles filtered through Bowie-esque cosmic pop-rock, soaring riffs, and twilight-drenched synths. The Ghanaian-born, Canada-based artist, whose creativity first took root amidst the streets of Ghana, defies every boundary with a genre-fluid sound built from raw emotion and untethered imagination.

‘Eden is Burning’ instantly grips with eccentrically ethereal vocals, weaving swooning melodies haunted by 80s nostalgia without succumbing to convention. The experience echoes the otherworldly charm of Science Fiction/Double Feature from the Rocky Horror Picture Show—except here, the surrealism intensifies. Arnold J. crafts a love song steeped in desolation, a harbingering elegy to the absence of someone capable of transforming the seventh ring of hell into a utopian escape.

Arnold J. has always marched to his own rhythm, from daydreaming melodies in Ghana to electrifying thousands at Assiniboia Downs on Canada Day. With ‘Eden is Burning’, he continues this pursuit, sculpting sonic portraits from poetic introspection, surreal imagery, and existential musings.

For alternative rock listeners drawn to music that traverses emotional depths and existential heights simultaneously, Arnold J. offers an experience as profound as it is soul-stirring.

‘Eden is Burning’ is now available to stream on all major platforms, including YouTube and Apple Music. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Hayden Royal explores the pain of knowing no decision is a remedy in his Indietronic RnB release, ‘Side by Side’

Posted on 30 March 2025

Hit play on Hayden Royal’s latest single, ‘Side by Side’, and brace yourself as emotion makes a full-on collision. Like every accomplished songwriter, Royal understands that affecting expression requires moving beyond thinking in black and white; here, he skilfully navigates the grey areas of duality. The lyrical protagonist faces a familiar yet brutal paradox—the pain of leaving someone can often match the agony of staying. Decisions become unbearable when love persists despite toxic dynamics, creating a tension that Royal vividly portrays.

Instrumentally, ‘Side by Side’ is an authentic amalgamation of indietronica, pop, and RnB—delivering something you genuinely haven’t encountered elsewhere. It’s a raw yet harmoniously layered exploration of indecision and grief, anchored by moody melodies, introspective lyricism, and soul-infused harmonies. Royal boldly traverses the chaotic push and pull between vulnerability and bravado, embodying a voice which will resonate with anyone caught between resilience and emotional collapse.

With darkly atmospheric production underscoring introspective verses and haunting hooks, Royal channels both tenderness and emotional exhaustion. There’s no bitterness here—just an honest reflection from a narrator clinging desperately to fleeting moments of warmth, knowing they’re scarcely enough to hold onto. With fearless candour, ‘Side by Side’ captures the universal struggle of letting go when holding on feels equally destructive.

‘Side by Side’ is now available to stream on all major platforms, including SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

White Picket Fences Are a Lie: Pillowprince Rewire Queer Disillusionment in ‘R the Straights OK’

Posted on 29 March 2025

With ‘R the Straights OK’, the Oakland indie gaze trio Pillowprince crack open heteronormativity with a switchblade grin and the simmering scorn of lived queer reality. What starts in alt-indie quiescence, all ethereal lilt and slowburn restraint, fractures with a scuzzy interlude that proves distortion isn’t just a sonic texture—it’s the emotional static that fuzzes over every moment spent being bent into someone else’s blueprint.

Crafted from the leather-creased, glitter-smeared spaces Pillowprince call home, the track flickers between fragility and defiant force. Olivia Lee’s vocals, feather-light but sharpened with conviction, echo through the mix like the ghost of a version of yourself you tried to edit out. As the instrumentation teases the hook with near-ritualistic patience, you’re pulled into a queer coming-of-age narrative where conformity is the real villain. The melodic breaks are more than sonic punctuation—they’re the spaces where all the unspoken things pool.

Lyrically, it’s a spicy satirical stab at the expectation to fall in line—white picket fences, 2.5 kids, dead-eyed suburbia—before it swerves back into the shadows of a different kind of fulfilment. This is queer unity under pressure. A noise-drenched consolation for anyone crushed under the weight of pretending that “normal” ever meant safe. With Sea Snyder on drums and Liza Stegall on bass locking in a rhythm section that holds its shape even as everything else implodes, the band embodies queer rebellion.

‘R the Straights OK’ is now available to stream on all major platforms via this link. 


Review by Amelia Vandergast.

Caught in the Current: The Manor Born Push Against the Tide in ‘Catch Up’

Posted on 24 March 2025

With their debut single, ‘Catch Up’, Tucson’s The Manor Born cement their stake in the indie rock soil with a release that thrums with urgency, yet never forgets to carry the melody. The verses pulse with pent-up tension, simmering beneath euphonic layers of saturation until the chorus tears through with cathartic clarity—each note a release valve for the emotional pressure that precedes it.

There’s a lo-fi warmth in the production that refuses to disguise itself as something it isn’t. It holds back from slickness and opts instead for truth—proving pretence, polish, and posturing have no place when the aim is to reach people, not impress them. Every line lands with weight, held together by panoramic progressions that refuse to sit still, and guitar tones as iridescent as the potential behind this project.

For anyone whose playlists are lined with Sam Fender or bands that know how to channel introspection without losing drive, ‘Catch Up’ won’t just resonate—it’ll leave a dent. The Manor Born understand how to translate emotional turbulence into something solid, tangible, and wildly listenable. The lyrics don’t beg for understanding—they offer it, through the universal disorientation that settles in when we try to find sense and self in a world always in flux.

There’s no promise of ease in their sound, but there is affirmation. And with this calibre of expression, The Manor Born have set a tone worth following.

Stream Catch Up on Spotify now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Fleeting Paris’ ‘Movie Star Quality’ Stages a Reality Without a Curtain Call

Posted on 13 March 2025

Fleeting Paris may take an unconventional approach to songwriting, but even with the sonic rulebook ripped up and its ashes scattered, Movie Star Quality doesn’t sacrifice accessibility or affectability. The sticky-sweet vocals, unfeigned in their emotion, drift through the sting of unflinching staccato guitar rhythms, revealing a mastery of tension-building. There’s little rhythmic release in the track, and that’s exactly where its ingenuity lies—it subverts expectation, bypassing the cliché of a soaring chorus to stay true to reality, where we wait for breaks that never come.

Lyrically, the track dissects the Hollywood-glamorised human experience, exposing the diminishment of those who don’t don the façade, even as we acknowledge that our idols have long shed their autonomy. This lyrical meditation becomes even more immersive through Fleeting Paris’ Paul Simon-esque vocal lines, which know exactly how to lock emotion into melody.

The rejection of conventional song structure only strengthens the track’s impact. Instead of offering the instant gratification of predictability, Movie Star Quality forces listeners to sit in the discomfort of unresolved tension. It’s a soundtrack to disillusionment, but one that never alienates—because beneath the abstraction, there’s a raw sincerity that makes every note resonate.

Movie Star Quality is available now on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast