Sugar for the Pill - LUV (2025)

I've seen Sugar for the Pill this year at Automatic Noise in Amsterdam in January and it was one of the highlights of the festivals. The band with probably the least difficult inspiration to decipher in the world, released their sophomore album last month and showed why this was the case.

Good shoegaze can be found anywhere in the world. I'm not very familiar with the Greek scene, but Sugar for the Pill is an outfit that proves this thought. Led by the airy vocals and light melodies, the band released a beautiful collection of songs that are as ethereal as they are melodic. A selection of certain hits for every (other) Slowdive lover. This ability to marry the airy and the catchy is what draws me to their music and songs like Anelia, Komorebi and, especially, Colours prove it over and over again. 

The album offers no break from the melodic, fast-paced music that, maybe because of the album title and the overall visual setting, feels... cute. Light and carefree, dreamy like a dream you don't want to wake up from. And one that, when it's finally over, makes you immediately miss it. 

LUV costs 10 EUR.

Check: Colours 

Country: Greece

Genre: catchy shoegaze

Label: Make Me Happy Records/Shelflife Records

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Messier 13 - Stay for a While (2025)

There is more than one Athens-based band in love with Slowdive's music? Yes sir! Three years after the world received the debut album from Sugar for the Pill, Messier 13 releases their own and, even if not called after the shoegaze legends' song, their vibes may be even closer to the beloved band.

Especially when you think about the band's first phases with slightly lo-fi sound and psychedelic guitars in the background, accompanying the soft and emotional vocals. But it cannot be said that the the Greeks, whose name is taken from a cluster of thousands of stars, are a cover band. The vibes are similar, but there's more to this music. There is, for example, some experimentations with heavier, louder notes in Apartment that is clearly inspired by more modern nugaze outfits.

The artists admit that their music is meant to touch the "themes of everyday life's fragility, routine, unrequited love and mourning", a perfect fit for the emotional shoegaze. It is melancholic and poignant while also being hypnotic and self-reflection-fueling. And makes me curious about the Greek shoegaze scene even more now.

Stay for a While costs 7 EUR.

Check: Apartment 

Country: Greece

Genre: melancholic shoegaze

Label: Inner Ear Records

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the abyss inside us & non somnia - our fears is what we become (2022)

Carlos Herrera, aka Non Somnia, already appeared on this blog last year. But this time he is joining another post-rock solo artist, Greek Nikos Togkaridis on this beautiful instrumental journey recorded on the our fears is what we become album.

This is this kind of post-rock that is infused with neoclassical elements right to the lid. It is opened with piano sounds, later joined by violin strings and it all makes it utterly melancholic. But it is soon empowered by louder, crushingly poignant guitars. If you think post-rock melancholia, it is the sound you think of. The compositions make it even more so: they swell around you, making the whole space filled with the autumn-like, tear-jerking feeling. Especially that it's not always about the loud; more often than not, the artists venture into the neoclassical instrumental ambient regions which only makes the post-rock explosions more impressive.

our fears is what we become costs 8 EUR.

Non Somnia - Stella Meae (2021)

Check: our fears is what we become

Country: Greece, Spain

Genre: melancholic post-rock

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Their Methlab - The Last Second (2019) EN

They come from Greece and are inspired by a whole range of artists: from our Polish Tides from Nebula to Maybeshewill and from System of a Down to Björk. And they play a spacious post-rock, which, after eight years of band's existence, finally got released on their debut LP called The Last Second.

They write that they try to find their own sound by playing the blending of post-rock, post-metal and elements of psychedelia. I'd add some of the majestic and heavy stoner rock although indeed, it's the psychedelic part that give flavour to the music by the Greeks. It is extremely guitar-loaded and sometimes it's almost crushing.

The album is devoted to the Last Second, as the artists state, it's "That split moment right before you get what you longed-for. That tiny space in time and the feeling that lives inside it". It's tangible especially in the well-developed tension of Decompression, wonderful ending of Muktuk and the finishing track Golden Bond of Ambition with its soul-crushing finish. Good listen.

The Last Second costs 5 EUR.

Check: Muktuk

Country: Greece

Genre: psychedelic post-rock

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Sediment Bruise - In​-​Between (2019) EN

Sedminet Bruise come from the Greek Thessaloniki and play post-rock hued indie rock. And they do that so well that their music caught my attention although it's not entirely in the blog's genre's spectre. Still, the unique and quality way of making music made it impossible for me to ignore their new album In-Between.

The band is characterized by "by atmospheric post melodies, which harmoniously combine the unique sound of the violin with the classic rhythm section and the urban aesthetic-fully emotional vocals". and those vocals are indeed something that immediately catches attention. They are unorthodox, uniquely coloured and often dispersed. They align well with the loud, guitar-synth music and catchy melodies. And the atmosphere of the album is the work of airy backing vocals and violins.

One can't say that the Greeks can't write catchy songs. They do it with the help of some tricks like children (or children-sounding) choir in Mirror, or almost orchestral chorus with the Verve's vibe in The Shore,  And there are those violins, I love their sound everywhere, but here they sound especially great, also with in combination with samples in Emergency Response.

In​-​Between costs 6 EUR.

Check: Mirror

Country: Greece

Genre: post-rocking indie rock

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WatchCamp July'18 - cathedral echo, Clovvder, Hey Exit, mizu amane, Orchin (2018) EN

cathedral echo - crystal flowers (कमल का फूल)

Project by Lefteris Tsourapis from Athens, Greece, describing his music as cosmic shoegaze, very much psychedelic and it's not only about the title/cover art. Waiting for the already announced EP entitled "ΨΧ". The track costs 1 EUR.

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Clovvder - Witch

"Feral cats purring to the Moon" from Uruguay. A duet consisting of Tanky and Cobra is a real musical witchcraft combining folk, ambient and industrial. The track costs whatever you pay.

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Hey Exit - Every Recording of Gymnopedie 1

Brendan Landis' music is one big neoclassical masterpiece, this time it's less of delicate sounds and more grandeur. The single is enriched with an orchestral version live recorded with The Ambient Orchestra. Both versions cost whatever you want to pay.

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mizu amane - okuribi

Side project by the Japanese dark classical Films that is centered around two vocalists. This time instead of singing in their own, imaginary language, they do it in Japanese and accompanied by piano music by Yuki Murata. And it's super beautiful. The track costs 1,5 USD.

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Orchin - Hate // Talking Alone​/​Walking Away

Very much lo-fi and surf rock-ish shoegaze from Los Angeles, sounds especially gracefully. Two tracks cost whatever you want to pay.

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Monochromatic Visions - Monochromatic Visions (2017) EN

Monochromatic Visions is one of those projects that, according to my ears, is really good at combining the shoegaze density with a plain message of coldwave. Already the project's name seems to suggest it with its visions experienced in black and white.

The Greeks use in their music the clear bass of coldwave and monumental guitar background from shoegaze and there is also the vocal that itself combines both genres. The album sounds like a perfect garage gig that forces you to have fun but also to lose yourself in thought a little bit.

The opening "Deep" is a simple message with a rhythmical background and a spectacular finish. "Secret Gardens (DIV)" on the other hand is a bit dreamy ballad ended with a solid rhythm of "Synesthimy" and dissolving in air, melancholic "Untitled For Now".

"Monochromatic Visions" is available for 3 EUR.

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SANAA - Tell Time By The Sun (2017) EN

Very short because the project is quite mysterious. Either my information finding skills are pretty weak, either there's next to nothing about SANAA to be found in the Net. Such a shame. Because the Greeks have recorded a great album that hides the softest of softcores and the sunniest of dreampops behind the image of the Sun. And the title is no coincidence.

Think about ocean, sunrise, and a situation when you don't have to check your watch to know the time, just looking at the Sun is enough. The album is all about this. Slow, even lazy pace of the drums plus struming guitars and this vocal. Like a memory of the best summer holidays of your youth. One can easily fall in this sound. And it's the most beautiful in "Sunrise", where dusty happiness seen from a distance still looks pretty amazing.

"Tell time by the sun" can be bought for 4 EUR.

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2l8 - The Answer (2016) EN

Theatrical rock, is it a musical genre? Guitar music filled with stage expression, exaggerations and poetry that is made to influence. This is how I think of Greek 2l8 which after a great “Η Κλωστή (The Thread)” and albums with music written for, obviously, theatre plays Antigone and Don Juan came back earlier this year with their best album up to now, “The Answer”. The way they describe the album, next to its post-apocalyptic cover, does already sound as if it was declaimed from stage: “Good news! Τhe world has finally ended! (...) It is time to celebrate. For we still have each other, we still have the passion (...) We are post human, we are calling to send this last message to YOU. The future depends on that tiny bundle of energy you hide inside. Join us. The war is far from over. And we need you. Signed: He&She”.

The idea of post humans who gave up their souls and started to evolve in some frightening, apocalyptic direction appears throughout the album. Those people are never fulfilled (“The wolf in me, is still hungry” - Post Human), they have no emotions (“Since that day I can only see / From the eternal perspective / I grow colder” - Learning to Breathe) and are very lonely (“The nameless grave that I dig for myself on bad days / It’s a handwritten list of the people I once knew, the people that left me” - Desire! Desire! Desire!). It all speaks very clearly, directly into your frightened soul. And it’s supported with fantastic melodies, surprisingly catchy music and delicate electronic filings. And first of all, with several different vocals, including something that sounds like gregorian chorales sung alongside guitar riffs.

Equally important is the fact that the album was crowdfunded and all the income will be given to help solving the refugee crisis in Greece, the most tangible trace of 2l8’s apocalypse coming and our western societies’ posthumanization.

“The Answer” is available for free but as written above, I recommend paying something as it is worth in every way.

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Afformance - Through Walls (2015) EN

“The wind! The fire! The sea! The volcanoes! The animals! The city! The laughter! The cries! The breath! The heartbeat!” - whatever you may think, it’s not fragment of a new movie about the adventures of Captain Planet, it’s a list of the phenomena that inspire the main characters of this post - the post-rocking wizards from Athens, Afformance. Already the first track is a whole story played on guitar riffs, a story of a man who experienced epiphany which led to his act of faith (Actus Fidei) and as a result fell up into the skies. Did it happen when facing death? Or is it something we all experience during our everyday so-called lives? The next songs are equally enigmatic. Cordyceps - a type of fungi that parasite and eventually decompose insects and other small animals, savants - a phenomenon when someone who is mentally challenged is also pure genius in some way (“Rain Man” anyone?) and finally the mysterious Mr Bennet - the only thing I made up from it is Stede Bonnet, a “gentleman pirate” who terrorized the Caribbean Sea on his Revenge in 18th century. Everything here is mysterious but in the end, what would post-rock be without mystery?

Even the band’s name is interesting. Could it mean some kind of mixture of affair and romance? Isn’t it the same? Do they add up to some kind of super-romance everyone dreams of?

Anyway, Afformance dress those mysteries into a beautiful form of guitar post-rock similarly as Explosions In The Sky and Mogwai do. Long, succinct compositions with occasional radio recordings, energetic accelerations and almost disco-like spontaneity (“Dancing Lessons…”). It’s this kind of music that goes through walls, be them the ones between the world and your soul or between you and your irritated neighbours.

Their previous album, “Affection” is available for free, “Through Walls” costs 5 EUR.

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No Clear Mind - Makena (2016) EN

Greek Week!.Delicate shoegaze, funeral pop, bedroom music - there’s many ways to describe a great London based band - Piano Magic. And, what I’ve just discovered, Greek No Clear Mind. It was really fortunate because the quintet has just released their new album - “Makena”. The title is sort of mystery to me as it cam mean either hydroxyprogesterone - manmade female hormone used to help women in pregnancy or an ocean district with beautiful beaches. Which makena is a better match?

The biggest difference between Piano Magic and NCM is the vocal - less whispery-mysterious kind, more self-confident that might be even accurate for, e.g. prog rock if it was tiny bit louder. The atmosphere is the same - tension under the skin, a river of sadness (“No man is an island but this is how I feel/season after season/year after year” (“No Man is an Island”) and this weird consolation in despair (“Feels like sinking in serenity/drifting where your heart will have me drift/I open up my arms to taste/your warm sweet and quiet embrace” (“Saint John”)).

For every fan of ambient pop with more guitars than keys but with tons of atmosphere - “Makena”.

The album is available for 6 EUR.

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