shoegaze
PREMIERE: Graywave – ‘Like Heaven’: surging, solo dreampop beauty
GRAYWAVE is the upcoming one-woman musical project of Jess Webberley who, after being a member of various other bands, decided to strike out with her own collaboratively untainted version of what a cracking dream pop aesthetic might be. She followed her instincts; and a listen to the track we’re premiering here today, “Like Heaven”, and …
SEE: Cheval Sombre returns with the hazy hush of ‘It’s Not Time’
HE’S BEEN away from our ears as a solo artist for what? Crikey it’s actually eight years now, how the egg-timer sands run; but Chris Porpora, who guises up for the world of music as Cheval Sombre, has come ambling in at the absolute final knockings of the year with a leaf-skeleton of absolute delicacy …
ALBUM REVIEW: Coldharbourstores – ‘Dearly Devoted’: gorgeous dreampop fourth
Coldharbourstores’ fourth is absolute industry standard dreampop – a hallmark by which the genre can be measured. It’s glowing, blissful and leftfield, while still being full of pop melodicism
SEE: llawgne – ‘Reverie Neverending’: welcome the Gothenburg ‘gaze
LLAWGNE is the musical guising mask of Mathias Engwall, an artist working out of Gothenburg with an ear for the heady rush of dreampop and shoegaze. He’s learnt his trade over at the other side of the soundproof glass, producing, mixing and mastering – but he’s all set to release an album for US indie …
TRACK: Holy Drone – ‘Fibres’: a lovely Cheshire shoegaze drop
HOLY DRONE, Warrington’s lovely purveyors of shoegaze, are back with their first new material since last year’s blissful heathaze shimmer, “Northern Fire”. They’ve spent the past year working on new material and, like the rest of us, navigating the new weird we find ourselves in. The first fruits of those months of writing are with …
TRACK: The Dawdler – ‘Sign Of Growth’: a sad, cruciverbalist shoegaze rush
THE DAWDLER is the low-key musical alias of Tyneside singer-songwriter John Edgar, who describes himself on his Twitter profile as “Ambient pop. Sad.” He’s more than made us sit up to attention with the brace of songs he’s released since signing to London indie Akira Records: the heart-wrenchingly sad “Lava Lamps”, about the collection of …
TRACK: Citrus Clouds – ‘Whoa’: another great shoegaze drop from Arizona
HERE at Backseat Mafia, being the old shoegazers that we are, we have an awful lot of love for Arizona’s Citrus Clouds, who know how a guitar can soar to heaven when caressed correctly. That name? It’s for the majestic sunsets the band – bassist and singer Stacie Huttleston, singer-guitarist Erick Pineda and drummer Angelica …
Track: Eskobar – Nobody Higher – No One Above
It’s remarkable enough to release six singles over the space of as many months, but to deliver such quality both in terms of music and visuals is astounding. Sweden’s Eskobar have done just that. Their distinctive form of retro rock, gathering in all that was good in the nineties Madchester era and creating a sparkling, …