Browsing Tag

post-punk

Grave-bound malaise saturates the alt-indie post-punk lament, ‘running out of time’ by the tonal alchemist, whywhy

Posted on 31 August 2026

whywhy could only be described as an alchemist when attempting to allude to the hypnotic mesmerism within his balance of distortion, sustain, timing and tone in his standout single, running out of time. The Switzerland-based indie rock artist, real name Guy, writes and records his music at home, shaping dreamy, melancholic guitars into masterstrokes of slow-burning indie post-punk lament that feel far larger than their bedroom-born origins.

Even though the sands of time are slipping all around us, people have set aside enough collective hours to stream the nostalgically art-house official music video over 700k times, and we can see why. The meditation on losing your grip on reality as it withers and pushes you into obsolescence is as haunting as it is transfixing.

There is a presence of Peter Murphy within the drawl of the vocals, set against harbinger-like wounded rings of guitar as they echo a procession to the grave. Fans of Bauhaus, Joy Division, The Cure and Interpol will recognise the shadowy lineage, yet whywhy’s restraint gives running out of time its own fogged-glass tension.

The track holds its malaise in the body rather than leaving it as an abstract mood. No matter how thick the fog in your mind gets, running out of time cuts through like a knife.

running out of time is now available on all major streaming platforms, including YouTube. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

gumdrop’s ‘germinate’ pushes shoegaze past nostalgia into feral alt-rock friction

Posted on 31 August 2026

The last few decades of shoegaze have left us under the impression that reinvention is nearly impossible. Enter gumdrop; the Bristol-based alt-indie rock powerhouse, originally formed in Southampton, who know exactly how to create the most visceral friction through chilly avant-garde post-punk elements, fuzzy feral 90s riot grrrl energy and crushing, all-consuming, oceanically hazy distortion.

Their latest single, germinate, builds walls of sound beyond nostalgia’s easy cosplay, using contemporary angst and echoes of ingenuity in instrumentals that refuse inhibition. The guitars stargaze while still sounding ready to bite, the basslines carry an ice-cold charge of grooved volatility, and the industrial-leaning synth melodies give the track a strange metallic bloom. Underneath it all, the drums punch through with enough physical force to keep the haze from swallowing itself whole.

Fans of My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Sonic Youth and Bikini Kill should find plenty to lose themselves in here, but gumdrop’s appeal sits in the way they drag those reference points into catharsis in its rawest form. The band isn’t making music like they used to, and that is exactly the point.

If authenticity guaranteed success, there would be no accolade out of gumdrop’s grasp. As intrepid explorers of intersections that few bands have the vision to explore, they suck you straight into their catatonic orbit.

germinate is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Slip into the post-industrial séance of SIXPOINTS’ slow-burning darkwave cut, ‘For Black Star’

Posted on 17 August 2026

SIXPOINTS explored ‘Negative Space’ in their latest darkwave post-punk LP, with For Black Star acting as its slow interstellar burn. Founded on Coast Salish territory on Vancouver Island by composer and instrumentalist Shaun Day Woods and poet-bassist Jimy Dawn, the post-industrial alternative project channels electro-poetica through sound and theatre while holding hope for the ground beneath us.

For Black Star smoulders in the middle ground between Sisters of Mercy and Bauhaus, letting gothic gravity pull the listener into a lullaby of dark decadence. Sermonic spoken-word poetry simmers through sparse production, sonically visualising the negative-space thematic core of the LP through tension-fraught spatial effects.

The arrangement lets tones leave trails of sustain behind them, from the rich, reverberant pulls of the bass strings to the maracas that sound as though a rattlesnake is set to sink its fangs into the production. The whole track moves with devotional patience, and that refusal to sprint becomes the single’s most unnerving pleasure.

Negative Space feels like an archaic revival for the Anthropocene, full of longings and bodily theatre. It’s the ultimate invitation to slip into a slower pace, resolved by a tempo that refuses to rush.

For Black Star is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Offworld Narcotics and Shedfromthebody were the catalysts of a darkwave trip-hop supernova with ‘Howl’

Posted on 8 August 2026

You’ve never truly gone aurally interstellar until you’ve succumbed to the darkwave trip-hop decadence that refracts through Howl, a caustically ethereal collaboration between Offworld Narcotics and Shedfromthebody. Led by New Jersey multi-instrumentalist Bryan Drummond, with William Fyke on production, synth and keys, and Brandon Bera adding drums, Offworld Narcotics have channelled the gravitational pull of Massive Attack and Portishead into something cosmically arcane.

Shirley Manson-esque vocals smoulder and spiritually stretch around the synapse-twisting synthesis of shoegaze walls of sound, post-punk guitars and an industrial-electronica rhythm section that gives the single the kinetic force of a juggernaut in space in berserk mode. The drums hit with violent discipline, the bass detonates with black-hole weight, and the guitars flare like emergency signals caught in a dream sequence.

After the sold-out Berlin Under A debut, WFMU support for Mariana, Amazing Radio rotation and Post-Punk.com attention, Howl is only going to pour fuel on the fire of Offworld Narcotic’s deserved momentum.

The way they pulled the single together with the perfect tension, keeping the seductive siren-like vocals in a magnetic hold as the instrumentals go full supernova-goes-pop, speaks to their real potential at the vanguard of this century’s trip-hop movement. Howl stirs the innermost primal parts of you and leaves a scorch mark on the nervous system. Feel the burn and hit play on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Juliez Andrewz Cast an Ethereal Post-Punk Spell with the Semi-Lucid Sermon, The Forgotten

Posted on 18 July 2026

If Juliez Andrewz is good enough to grace the stage at the Whisky A Go-Go, they are worthy of a spot on your darkwave playlists. The alternative-rock project, led by guitarist and songwriter Jed Tyler, has been performing since 2018, building a reputation across the U.S. and Canada for professional shows, movement-stirring songs and a catalogue that already includes RocknRoll Girl, Life in Rewind, Other Voices and Something From Nothing.

With a Protomartyr-level of panache to their ethereal take on post-punk in their latest standout single, The Forgotten, the spoken-word lyrics become a semi-lucid technicolour sermon. Reverb glistens through the arrangement that borders on avant-garde art rock, refusing to follow formulaic rules while still giving listeners enough rhythmic pull to sink fully into its strange emotional architecture.

You could almost imagine the single drifting through a soundtrack to an indie arthouse flick in place of Dream Baby Dream by Suicide. The cinematic pull of The Forgotten intensifies through its intoxicating psychedelic swells, proving that Juliez Andrewz know exactly how to achieve the correct dosage when alchemising allegories that hold a mirror to societal atrocities.

After four appearances at the iconic West Hollywood venue, Juliez Andrewz sound primed to convert cult intrigue into wider underground devotion.

The Forgotten is now available to stream on all major platforms. For the full experience, watch the official music video on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

CIGARETTE AFTER SCHOOL teased their pain into the chill of their sludgy post-punk release, YOU CANNOT UNDERSTAND

Posted on 12 July 2026
CIGARETTE AFTER SCHOOL

The Montreal-based Ukrainian breakthrough artist CIGARETTE AFTER SCHOOL bridged the gap between Bauhaus and Nirvana with the standout single, YOU CANNOT UNDERSTAND, from their debut EP, NOTHING BUT A GAME. By orchestrating a sub-zero tundra of a sludgy landslide with cold, angular guitars and dense production, backed by deadpan vocals that paradoxically howl, they have unequivocally staked their claim as grungy post-punk fusionists with serious command of their source material.

YOU CANNOT UNDERSTAND keeps its edges tetanus sharp; the single sits in the aftermath of late-night conversations and empty streets, where introspection sours into volume and distortion pedals hit like concrete to the nervous system. The band’s bio frames their music as thinking out loud, and the single carries that exact sensation: private turmoil forced into a room too loud to ignore.

Their reverence for both genres never collapses into cosplay. CIGARETTE AFTER SCHOOL know their way around grunge and post-punk down to the smallest footnotes on the map, letting raw energy, theatrical restraint and working-class gloom meet inside a release that feels immediate on stage and brutally internal through headphones.

NOTHING BUT A GAME becomes a grimy, ensnaring, maleficent conduit for the artist’s tumult of pain. If YOU CANNOT UNDERSTAND is only a glimpse into the mind of CIGARETTE AFTER SCHOOL, their inner worlds must be a carousel through those seven infamous circles.

YOU CANNOT UNDERSTAND is now available to stream on all major platforms via this link.

 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

GLEET’s ‘Strident’ Is Industrial Post-Punk Transmitted Through Brutalist Working Class Static

Posted on 6 July 2026

Hitting play on Strident, the latest release by GLEET, is the equivalent of blowing the dust off a long-lost early industrial post-punk relic and instantly being sucked into the EBM drive of the release, which leaves a reel of brutalist working-class imagery spinning before your eyes as a bleak whirling dervish.

If you like getting your body beat to gothically draped protest punk rhythms and snarled vocals as they cut across vintage sound clips of the public making their contribution to archival history, Strident leaves nothing to be desired. If you stripped the romanticism and Euro gloss off Poison Ivy and injected caustic Skinny Puppy debased energy, you would be left with Strident. There’s an authenticity to the rusty and raw ambience of the single, which is becoming increasingly rare to find from new names in the industry, but GLEET have been cutting their teeth for decades.

Gregor Former and Sam Neal first began twisting songs out of life in a Little Venice off-licence in the 90s, before years of marathon jam sessions, imaginary bands and the eventual birth of Scrunt led to the project taking shape. With Michael Chilokoa and Kevin Mertens also threaded into the story, GLEET have turned friendship, absurdity and anti-commercial noise into a fully realised sonic language. Now, with more than 140 unreleased songs still lurking in the vault, Strident proves there is plenty of societal rust to scrape loose.

 Strident is now available to stream on all major platforms, including YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Guilty? by Rebel Trust Is Grunge Nihilistically Dragged Back into the Basement

Posted on 3 July 2026

Rebel Trust caustically cut across post-grunge with the single, Guilty?, from their recently released LP, 31 Atlas. Far more gnarled and scuzzed than anything Dinosaur Jr. ever conjured, with the melodic gravity of their most iconic hits, Guilty?, in all of its nihilistic ennui, drags mainstream grunge back into the basement.

The songwriting chops are as sharp as what made the pioneers legends in the 90s, but the punk energy riling the sludgy vocals and instrumentals places Rebel Trust in a far more disenchanted territory, one which reflects the malaise of your own life and the wider world falling apart simultaneously. The riffs stay raw, simple and melodic in the way grunge should be, carrying the brutal honesty of Nirvana’s era without sounding like a museum-piece imitation.

Rebel Trust is a one-man project, created entirely by Robert without AI, made in the slivers of free time left between hospital shifts. That context gives Guilty? a working-life exhaustion and a lived-in strain that cannot be faked. If we are all being honest with ourselves, we can probably all relate to Guilty?, even in an abstract way. All it takes is one first-world problem, and we are spiralling until we are beckoning the apocalypse.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast

LOCO TRANQUILO injected psychedelia into the liminal space between dreams and reality with the alt-indie hit, SUËÑO

Posted on 25 June 2026
https://youtu.be/gpzdx7tXn8g

Indie psychedelia reached a new potency with LOCO TRANQUILO’s latest single, SUËÑO; just one hit of the intoxicating meditation on what it means to live in a landscape mapped out by desire, memory and the dissonance of living between dreams and reality and you’ll be hooked on the alt-indie triumph.

Written, composed, sung and co-produced by Julian Armando Gervasi, SUËÑO pairs hypnotic Spanish vocals with lush guitars and immersive textures, turning its emotional landscape into something lucid, feverish and full of strange gravity. Recorded at Different Fur Studios in San Francisco, the single draws Latin soul, psychedelia and modern art-rock into a cinematic frame that deserves to be hung on your playlists.

The track sets an atmosphere through post-punk and new wave echoes in the verses before rampaging as an earworm of an indie anthem in the chorus. As eclectic as the arrangement is, LOCO TRANQUILO never lets the arcane sense of spirituality slip; it is as though the artist summoned forces beyond this millennium to make SUËÑO as primally magnetic as possible. With its accompanying visual by Eber Bravo extending the dream logic of the release, SUËÑO becomes a sensual portal between memory, longing and waking life.

SUËÑO is now available to stream on all major platforms. For the full experience, watch the official music video on YouTube. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Concealer Dragged Angular Guitars and Stone Roses Swagger into Shoegaze’s Next Burst Through the Alt-Indie Zeitgeist with their Debut, ‘Someone’

Posted on 30 May 2026

Alt-90s ear candy is sweeter than ever now that Concealer have entered the alt-indie circuit with their debut single, Someone. After hooking shoegaze fans hook, reel, and sinker with iconic Slowdive-esque angular guitar notes drifting into a kaleidoscope of choral saturation, the band pivots into vocal swagger possessed by Stone Roses and Fontaines D.C., with cadencing so hypnotic and kinetic it acts as a percussive instrument as much as a conduit for bittersweet longing.

Someone feels built from the residue of smoke-machined venues, scuffed pedals, overdriven youth, and the weary romance of guitars sounding half-awake and fully haunted. The production keeps its shoegaze haze lucid enough for the hooks to cut through, while the vocal line prowls across the track with the clipped bite of post-punk and the loose-limbed cool of 90s indie rock.

With just enough psychedelia to twist the atmosphere in a way we’re sure Bez would get high on, Concealer pushed indie shoegaze beyond its usual revivalist limits and landed on something far more affecting than genre nostalgia. Their debut carries the confidence of a band already aware of the room they can command and the cultural pressure they can apply. Someone is a masterstroke of a first strike, armed with exactly what is needed to keep the cultural zeitgeist in a chokehold until their next release.

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

 Review by Amelia Vandergast