shoegaze
News: New Zealand’s Womb announce EP ‘Holding a Flame’, out through Flying Nun Records, and tour dates
Shoegaze/dream pop exponents extraordinaire, Womb, from Pōneke (Wellington) have just announced the release of a new EP – ‘Holding a Flame’ – on 23 June 2021 through the inestimable and legendary Flying Nun Records. What a powerful combination. To launch this event, Womb will be embarking on a Aotearoa/New Zealand-wide tour. ‘Holding a Flame’ is a …
Track: Make a montage release the evocative dreamy instrumental ‘Horizon Blur’.
There is an indelible feeling of euphoria emanating from the new instrumental track by Brisbane band Make a montage. The track surges and recedes and flows with a sparkle and vivacity: scaling guitars that sweep over the wash of percussion and strings: distance feedback squalls like seabirds in flight and there is a magnificent, pulse …
Premiere: Ipswich instrumental magicians Coalfalls provide us with an exclusive listen to their new EP ‘Pieces’: a shimmering sonic temple
Ipswich band Coalfalls achieve something remarkable for a band that plays instrumentals: they create the most evocative and lush soundscapes that speak volumes without words. We introduced the band last year with their double singles Coalfalls and Stephenson Street evoking a layered shoegaze/dream pop vibe. There is an abstract expressionism in their pieces that sparkles …
News: Noughties shoegaze revivalists Sennen’s debut album gets a vinyl issue from Sonic Cathedral; see the video for their new single, ‘Forty Years’
WHEN shoegaze was so cruelly traduced by the inkies, dazzle-eyed by their enthralment with the twin coming of grunge and early Britpop, us aficionados shed a quiet tear for a lovely sound, a gorgeous aesthetic seemingly consigned to the history books; but you can’t, as we can see in retrospect, keep a great idea down. …
EP Review: Oceans washes a dream pop shoegaze fugue over us with the epic ‘Come So Far’
‘Come So Far’ is an immersive and epic debut from Melbourne’s Oceans (the moniker of Thomas Lee): four tracks that shimmer and sparkle with an iron spine and a dreamy disposition. Lee says of the EP: This is my debut EP recorded for my solo project Oceans. It encapsulates the last 5-7 years of my …
See: The halcyon dream pop bliss of Requin Chagrin’s ‘Fou’ comes with added motorcycle GP glamour
REQUIN CHAGRIN is a multifaceted creative guising of Marion Brunetto, who’s an author and multi-instrumentalist with an ear for blissful beauty, for sure. A well-received, eponymous debut emerged in 2015, came on 10″, and contained early surf-garage belters such as “Le Chagrin”; 2019’s Sémaphore proved this was no passing ship in the night and kicked …
Album Review: CLUSTERSUN’s Avalanche is a magnificent, mesmerising and eviscerating piece of gothic shoegaze magic
‘Avalanche’, the new album from Italian shoegaze behemoths, CLUSTERSUN, clearly sets out its sonic intent from the very beginning. ‘Desert Daze’ is an aural buzzsaw, tilting along a thundering rhythm section with sonorous, razor sharp guitars and impassioned vocals. It is a wall of sound filtered through by flange, reverb and feedback that leaves one …
Track: Moody Beach delivers a scuzzy fuzzy delightful blast with ‘The Other’ and announces new EP ‘Assembly of the Wild’
There is a lovely scuzzy, dirty edge to Moody Beach’s (aka Melissah Mirage) new track ‘The Other’ that fills it was swagger and attitude – matched by Moody Beach’s performance in the accompanying video. The track contrasts with her earlier release (‘Chance’, reviewed by me here) which was a more restrained dream pop piece. The gloves come …
Album review: Cheval Sombre – ‘Days Go By’: Chris Porpora’s second of the year delivers an airy, dreamy space-folk coda
IT’S ONLY his fourth album at all in the catalogue; the second, Mad Love, was almost nine years ago now; but the third, Time Waits For No One, is only three months old. Oh: more importantly, most importantly, Time Waits for No One was also absolutely beautiful. Chris Porpora, the thoughtful architect who guises as …
See: Wyldest – ‘Heal’: a country-dream pop shimmer with an intelligent and universal lyrical arrow
WITH only days to go before the release of her new album, Monthly Friend, and her also venturing out on the road for a socially distanced series of dates across the UK, purveyor of intelligent and politically couched dream pop Wyldest has shared one final single, the sweet and chiming “Heal”, the video for which …