Browsing Tag

shoegaze

Bitten Tongues Become Dreamy Alt Indie Rock Catharsis in Bushwick Princess’ Latest single, Temkins

Posted on 17 July 2026

Brooklyn trio Bushwick Princess channelled the pulled teeth of compromised peace into Temkins, a reverb-rich alt indie rock allegory steeped in post-grunge, melodic 90s rock and shoegazed art rock. The fourth single from their EP carries the strain of relationships stalled by stubbornness, pride and too much shared history, where potential remains visible while honest conversation stays trapped behind bitten tongues.

Matt Francini’s vocals drift through spectral Thom Yorke-esque harmonies and Cornell-reminiscent gravel, holding onto their honeyed vulnerability as angular guitars and choral bass movements swell around him. Kane Delaney’s drums give the arrangement shifting physicality, while Andrew Miller’s bass and synth work deepen the sense of emotional suspension. Every contortion in the production visualises the strain of loving someone through an impasse, accepting imperfection while swallowing the words that might disturb a fragile peace.

Francini’s classical background, years spent moving through blues, rock, alternative rock and industrial music, and later vocal training feed directly into the song’s precision and emotional reach. Recorded through a 100% DIY ethos in his Brooklyn apartment, Temkins carries the intimacy of something lived at close range. Its universalised alienation pulls the listener from a tiny interpersonal world into a spiralling vortex of connection, delivering a deliciously timbral, multisensory, synaesthesia-inducing experience with the philosophical force of discovering Kafka, Camus or Dostoyevsky for the first time.

Temkins was officially released on July 16th and is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Harper – Anymore: A Distortion-Maimed Shoegaze Hymn of Bloody Valentine-Esque Static Haunted by the Melancholy of Thom Yorke

Posted on 23 June 2026

If Thom Yorke ever lent his voice and rhythmic tendencies to My Bloody Valentine, the alt-indie scene would have imploded through everyone collectively losing their minds; the idea of what that would sound like ripples through Anymore, one of the standout singles, Anymore, from harper’s debut album, Breach.

Languid vocal notes stretch through the arrangement, drifting around the walls of distortion-maimed shoegaze guitars; each time the scuzz slips away, it leaves room for the sublimity within the melody to shine through the production alongside the ethereal voice and timbres of acoustic strings, juxtaposing the no-wavey noise that constantly feeds back floods of caustic energy from the amps.

Anymore is the kind of single that could reach you even in the darkest pit of despair, entrenched in its own sense of cultivated darkness, the kind of darkness which can only belong to the painfully self-aware, which, we imagine, comprises the vast majority of harper’s international fanbase, which they should be taking as a badge of cerebral honour.

The Detroit four-piece spent three years recording Breach, threading hundreds of guitar layers through pipe organ, string octet, piano and harp arrangements until the record became a colossal act of atmosphere. Produced by Nick West under the mentorship of Chris Vrenna, founding drummer of Nine Inch Nails, the album reflects its meticulous orchestration and the band’s obsessive devotion to aural purification.

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

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

Snailosaur Uses Sardonic Slacker Wooziness to Kick Up Sludgy Indie Gold in Soccer Ball Song 

Posted on 3 April 2026

Snailosaur paved over the eccentrically sardonic sonic signature of Pavement within Soccer Ball Song, a sludgy slacker jam that gives indie fans the kind of kick that only outlier anthems in the vein of Nada Surf’s Popular can deliver. Built around New York City songwriter Paul Dean and his collaborators, Snailosaur pulls together ‘90s-tinged indie guitar poetry with alt-rock abrasion, noise-rock scrapes, shoegaze fog and spoken-word candour. That mix lands with proper character here. From the crunched guitar distortion to the wooziness of the production to the drawl that instantly lets Snailosaur nestle up next to you as your new favourite cynical acquaintance with a soul of gold, Soccer Ball Song is delicious.

It’s hook-rich, not in the way of tracks angling for a superficial dopamine jab, but in the way that delivers the ultimate intravenous shot of indie kid sticky-sweet with romantic-in-spite-of-ennui serendipity. The song carries scuffed charm and a loose-limbed magnetism that keeps everything authentically askew.

Following the 2024 release of the full-length Talk Therapy and a steady run of singles, Snailosaur have kept shaping their sound in New York and Brooklyn dive bars and rock clubs. Soccer Ball Song feels like another sharp hit from that world, one that we can all grab a grimy barstool and experience.

Soccer Ball Song is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Claire Martine put classical strings against Slowdive-esque Shoegaze with ‘Better safe than sorry’

Posted on 31 March 2026
Claire Martine

Claire Martine has launched an indie dream pop single you won’t want to wake up from with Better safe than sorry. Born and raised in Milwaukee and now based in NYC, the singer-songwriter and producer brings her classical violin background into alternative music with a natural feel for atmosphere and arrangement. That musical grounding has already helped her build real momentum, from repeated support on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee to a Summerfest Studio Milwaukee session and strong traction online, but this release says far more than any stat line could.

Reverb and chorus-laden guitars are accentuated by the cinematically ornate timbre of violin strings, marking Claire Martine as a commanding force in instrumental layering, using texture to deliver shoegaze transcendence to a crowd who probably thought they had already heard it all before.

It’s alt-90s with a tender touch of contemporary grace and ingenuity that should see Claire Martine thriving in 2026, thanks to its hazy semi-lucid dreamscapes that invite listeners to melt into them and temporarily forget the weight of their souls. And, no review would be complete without mention of the sheer sublimity of the vocal harmonies, which sit perfectly within the balance of distortion and diaphanous scintillation. She’s a rare talent, it’s only a matter of time before she’s an immensely revered one.

Better safe than sorry is now available on all major streaming platforms. Find your preferred way to listen via the artist’s official website.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Mythic Melodys: Broken Halo – A Neon Melancholy-Stroked Bridge into the Future of Melodic Alt-Trap

Posted on 24 March 2026

The Swiss visionary Pascal Stich has his emotive peak with the latest Mythic Melodys single, Broken Halo, providing melodic alt-trap with a definitive bridge into the future of the genre. It is production perfection for the way the angular shoegaze-esque guitar notes sting as they dance around bass-swathed beats and electronic motifs, which edge the release into a melancholic pool of new wave synth-pop.

It feels almost perverse to derive such immense pleasure from a lyrically cutting release where raw wounds bleed into the contours of the lyricism. The track touches on themes of resilience, hope, masochism, and mourning with a refreshing lack of artifice; it outpours the emotive revelations that come to us when we’re looking up from rock bottom; the kind of introspective fragments that few people would dare to air, let alone let loose on the airwaves.

Having already surpassed one million streams, this track follows the massive success of previous hits like AM I HIGH, proving that the 26-year-old artist has mastered the art of turning lyrical confessions into highly visual, pensive neon-stroked snapshots.

Created in the solitude of late-night reflection, the music invites a deep connection through its cinematic atmosphere. It is a total vibe for those who prefer their playlist staples with a side of vulnerable, inner reflection.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Proto-Punk Amplification Propelled the Drifts of Indie Shoegaze in Julia’s Bureau Breakout Single, ‘Ignatius J’

Posted on 6 March 2026
Julia's Bureau

With an audible reverence to authenticity and after perfecting the art form of transforming indie nostalgia into tones that ring with the assurance of familiarity instead of assimilation, the breakout single from Julia’s Bureau from the aptly titled EP, An Introduction to Julia’s Bureau, is set to be an introduction not forgotten.

In Ignatius J, momentum floods and floors the overdriven guitars between angular indie-pop notes, giving the seminal track a tinge of shoegaze, especially as the harmonies drift into the instrumental arrangement like they are a puzzle piece waiting to be slotted in. Through melancholically bright tenderness in the vein of Slowdive, fused into unrestrained amplification drawn from proto-punk and college-radio rock icons, this jangly indie anthem feels miles removed from the watered-down mediocrity saturating streaming platforms. Ignatius J is as far from indie-landfill as you can get, and it deserves a place on every indie-radio A-list.

There is a rawness that aligns neatly with the second wind of the analog age. The track keeps its edges intact, resisting trend-chasing in favour of something real and resonant. If the indie scene operated as a meritocracy, this would sit at the top of the charts in no time, driven by the simple fact that it sounds lived-in rather than engineered.

Glasgow-based four-piece Julia’s Bureau have taken their time arriving at this EP. Featuring Euan Davidson and Tom Gilbert on guitars and vocals, Gavin Murray on bass, and Thomas Emslie on drums, the band carry influences rooted in Postcard Records and off-kilter US alt-rock, with a clear affection for 12-string jangle. Recorded in 2025 with Ronan Fay at Green Door Studios in Finnieston, the EP was tracked largely live to tape, favouring immediacy over polish. Ignatius J stands tall within that ethos, confronting social anxiety and ill health through the lens of literary anti-hero Ignatius J Reilly, grounding its sonic sweep in something as timeless as Reilly’s work.

Ignatius J is now available on all major streaming platforms, including SoundCloud. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Strolls – Secrets: Indie-Rock Ferocity Wrapped in Shoegaze-Brushed Melancholy

Posted on 29 January 2026

90s nostalgia reverberates through the lush with melancholy guitar chords in the opening sequence of The Strolls’ Secrets, setting a tone that lingers like an afterimage before the track shifts into something sharper. That dreamy shoegaze-y reverie gives way to the diaphanous visceralism of early-00s indie, where a sardonic bite curls through the vocal inflections. The choral lift in the jangly arrangement keeps everything weightlessly infectious, yet there is an undercurrent of tension that builds as the track widens its emotional aperture. Secrets fires from an arsenal of thematic intensity, almost as if the band are exhaling something they’ve held in far too long. It is a different kind of breakup confession, one that channels the fury that arrives when patience finally dissolves and you recognise you’ve been keeping space for someone who poisons every room they enter without a facade.

That instinct for raw emotional expression ties neatly into who The Strolls are. The Fort Wayne alt indie quartet have always shaped their sound around genuine feeling, whether through Micah Gilliom’s tight percussion, Scotty Frank’s bass and vocal lines, or the way Joe Finch and Shaun Ross pull between atmosphere and urgency on guitar. Their Midwest roots come through in the unvarnished honesty of their songwriting, a quality that made their 2025 album SeaDogs such a magnetic listen, with melodic riffs and gritty-hearted storytelling carrying tracks like Call The Cops and SeaDogs. Secrets takes that foundation and gives it a sardonic twist, showing how the band can move between tenderness and fury without losing the thread of what makes their music resonate: they always tell the truth, even when it stings.

Secrets is now available on all major streaming platforms, including YouTube. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

LIBRE – All Combined: Post-Punk Shoegaze with a Lush Surge of Platonic Romanticism

Posted on 17 January 2026
LIBRE

The debut single, LIBRE, All Combined, writhes with platonic romanticism and floods the bones with the kind of emotion Bowie channelled in ‘Heroes’, caught in a swirl of post-punk melancholy and shoegaze gauziness. With angular guitar licks slicing through the haze and a bassline that clings like memory, there’s an archive of aching devotion in every note that affirms your soul instead of trying to break your heart.

Instead of hiding behind a typical wall of fuzzed-out noise, All Combined lets the textures speak, lets the vocals bleed with a paradox of deadpan soul, and lets the shimmer sit close enough to reach without ever giving in to gloss. The mood simmers in dreamily sludged aesthetics, but LIBRE don’t let it drift too far from a tether of emotional clarity. The track hypnotically curls itself around you, echoing the kind of late-night thoughts that know exactly which memories have shaped you — and which ones still hurt to hold.

Copenhagen’s LIBRE have shown their hand early: this is a band intent on tugging souls in from the void with noisy delicacy. All Combined, mixed by Brian Batz, is for the melancholics who grew up backing The Chameleons over Joy Division, and for those who still want their post-punk adjacent releases served with a warm swell of affection rather than monochrome despair. With this debut, you can let go of apathy and hold on to something far more worthwhile.

All Combined is now available on all major streaming platforms. Find your preferred way to listen here.
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Review by Amelia Vandergast

Becky Raisman summoned shoegaze reverence and celestial reclamation in ‘Moon Goddesses’

Posted on 2 January 2026

Becky Raisman dislocated alt-rock’s foundations with Moon Goddesses, a transcendent single that rewrites the celestial script for feminine energy in guitar-led psychedelia. Based in South Carolina, the enigmatic singer-songwriter poured cosmic reflection into the dream-soaked production, tuning into the reverb-heavy textures of shoegaze while spiralling through a haze of retro-futurism that sounds like it’s been dredged from the deepest part of a lucid dream.

Moon Goddesses refuses to anchor itself to any one aspect of divine femininity. Instead, it drifts through the infinite ways we inhabit space, identity, and impact, in the brief glimmer we occupy within the universe. As the hyper-pop-laced vocals echo and distort, they bleed through a shoegazey soup of delay, chorus and shimmer, creating a soundscape steeped in woozy introspection and kaleidoscopic resolve. Her voice might be filtered beyond recognition, but the emotion seeps through every twist in the melody.

The production, guided by guitar and mood rather than rhythmic anchors, will resonate with listeners who gravitate towards the down-tempo poetry of Beach House or the submerged distortions of Deerhunter. But Raisman’s energy feels uniquely her own—less homage and more holy incantation. Her space in the alt-rock canon is claimed not through volume, but through conceptual depth and a refusal to conform to genre archetypes. We’re stoked to see what she does next.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast