Browsing Tag

Indie Shoegaze

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

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

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

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

Azure Wolf delivers strident poetry in their indie power-pop ballad, You Belong to Me.

The Winchester, VA indie rock outfit, Azure Wolf, have released their debut album, Tensions. Within the ten tracks, they have practically covered the entire emotional spectrum.

After starting with the shoegaze masterpiece, Black Fur, which captures the alienation in dissociation, the album flows into affectionately strident poetry with the standout single, ‘You Belong to Me’.

Around the shimmering guitars, Victoria Backle’s vocals pour unadulterated emotion into the mix as she proves what unconditional love looks like in the indie power-pop ballad that leaves you with no question about the authenticity of this ingenuity-powered outfit. With the folk, rock, pop and indie nuances all seamlessly infused, You Belong to Me breathes visceral alchemy.

Azure Wolf’s debut album, Tensions, is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Gold Supply take us ‘Completely Underwater’ in their artfully ethereal debut EP.

September saw the debut of The Gold Supply, a collective of ex-major label artists seeking to infringe ambience on the external chaos in the world with their artfully ethereal presence during the pandemic.

Their debut EP, Completely Underwater, reflects the dystopia that may as well be in the water at this point before poetically finding a way to say “mate, same” to everyone who knows how it feels when no sigh is deep enough to take the weight off your lungs.

In the same way that shoegaze icons surrender your soul to the serenity of their soundscapes, the Gold Supply efficaciously leads you to tranquillity through the delicacy of the sparse yet resounding instrumental layers. With a similar sonic palette to Pet Deaths, they’re definitely ones to watch.

Completely Underwater is now available to sink into on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Shoegaze thrashes against No-Wave in Mild Horses’ standout single Failing Upwards.

Ignorance To Enlightenment And Back Again by Mild Horses

If your 90s Shoegaze records aren’t quite hitting the same these days, introduce yourselves to Slowdive’s noisier cousin, the London-based solo artist, Mild Horses.

The standout single, Failing Upwards, from their debut album, Ignorance to Enlightenment and Back Again, is comparable to a cocktail of the most indulgent elements of the Pixies, My Bloody Valentine and Interpol.

Listen intently, and you will get to keep hold of the sway-worthy bitter-sweet melodies that resound around the harsher no-wave elements that adrenalize the mix without ever chipping away at the ethereal soul of the release. Towards the outro, Mild Horses builds a wall of noise in his own psychedelically sonic style, making Failing Upwards all but impossible to forget.

Failing Upwards is now available to stream and purchase on Bandcamp.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Sleepy Palms shone the Cali sun into their debut shoegazy garage rock single, You’re Gonna Be Just Fine

Garage rock, surf rock and shoegaze entwine in the synthy debut single, You’re Gonna Be Just Fine, from the California-based pioneers, The Sleepy Palms. They shone plenty of Cali sun into the optimistic in spite of crushing dread soundscape that will allow you to imagine what the Verve could have been if it wasn’t always raining in Manchester.

Their clever hooks, captivating choruses, velvety smooth vocals and glassy synths are arresting from start to finish as the Sleepy Palms set an innocently amorous scene that celebrates fleeting intimacy.

The way the bitter-sweet lyrics “I never liked the taste of cigarettes, I just wanted to be around you, and after all this time there is nothing left, but I’m still so glad I found you” fall into the surf rock rhythms, shoegazey reverb and clean vintage garage rock tones left me feeling like I’d hit the aural jackpot. Enrichen your soul by heading over to Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Nolle has released her deliciously morose shoegaze single, congratulations

Nolle

Any fans of Mazzy Star, Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen will want to experience the deliciously morose tones in Nolle’s latest shoegaze single, congratulations, which comes with absorbing dissonant turbulence as it explores the effects of gas lightning through arrestingly poetic lyrics.

The concluding line, “now you can laugh at my art like my pain, guaranteed I’ve already done the same to myself”, affirms just how vulnerable of a release this is and without vulnerability, art is essentially meaningless.

At the age of 21-years-old, the Calgary-born, Vancouver-based expressionist and songwriter is already outshining the competition in terms of lyrical maturity and ability to sonically reflect the jarring instability of the emotions we can walk away from relationships with.

Congratulations officially released on August 6th; you can check out the single by heading over to the artist’s official website.

Rorys Aspect has diversified Manchester’s music scene with his seminal single, Social Anxiety.

Manchester-based alt-indie electropop artist and producer Rorys Aspect has released his arresting EP, Lifesaver, featuring the standout synth-pop track, Social Anxiety, which comes with spacey 80s vibes and the most candid lyricism you will hear this year.

With shoegazey guitars and just as much reverb on the vocals, the raw nature of the lyricism loses some of its sting in the choral trippy tones that are prolific in tracks from Manchester’s greats such as the Stone Roses, the Chameleons and the Charlatans.

The self-produced track is unequivocal proof that Manchester has another revolutionary in its midst. As a fellow Mancunian, it is all too refreshing to hear an indie artist not falling into the process of assimilation.

You can check out Rorys Aspect’s latest EP by heading over to Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Fox Evades – soaring, spacious dreampop with ‘Someday’

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

Srujanika shines a light on the darkest nights with her indie single, ‘Rise’.

For her latest single, ‘Rise’, which has now been accompanied by a music video shot by Guillaume, up and coming singer-songwriter Srujanika teamed up with producer MILIAH to orchestrate an intricate, intimate feat of indie-pop that doesn’t just lyrically scratch at the surface. It cuts right down to the marrow.

Sometimes, all that is needed is the reminder that no matter how alone you feel on the darkest nights, you’re not alone in your dark transition periods before the light starts to breakthrough. The deeply spiritual release pulls in nuances of shoegaze and dream pop to give the single a sense of fragility; through Srujanika’s vocals, you’ll find comfort along with the inspiration to find the same resilient strength.

Even if you listened to the radio all day, you wouldn’t hear a more compassionate and consoling voice.

You can check out the official video to Rise that premiered on May 15th by heading over to YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast