TVAM - Ruins (2026)

Joe Oxley uses the moniker of TVAM to create a curious blend of electronica, post-punk and dreamy music that is also extremely catchy at the same time. On his third record Ruins, roughly half of the songs could easily become radio hits (if radios were any good these days), which is a fantastic recommendation to try this oneiric banger machine.

The darkwavey vibes, the post-punky vibes, the dream poppy vibes: everything is present on Ruins, Oxley clearly draws from various sources, having fun with concocting the perfect mixtures for music lovers. The Words Real Life, or my favourite Follow Me Home are the catchiest thing you can imagine. But at the same time, the album is meant to reflect the pain of grief and the "strange beauty that comes with it", a curious form of a disco music for dead inside, a dance setlist for lonely and lost. Follow Me Home is just the darkest thing you can lose yourself on the dancefloor to and I love it. In his own words, the artist's music refers to memories and fears of the audience which, for me, is a perfect explanation why dream pop and post-punk meet here. 

Ruins costs 11 EUR (9 GBP).

Check: Follow Me Home

Country: UK

Genre: darkwave dreamy pop

Label: Invada Records

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The KVB - Unity (2021)

Their first album was released over a decade ago, since then, the British duo The KVB released several works that shaped the world of electronic airy music with Always Then and 2018's Only Now Forever as perfect examples. This year, Nicholas Wood managed to release his solo album under the moniker Saccades and now, the band is back on it again with the new album called Unity.

The KVB's main characteristic is that they create very airy music without much of the guitar sounds. But unlike, say, SPC ECO, they don't go towards moody trip-hop but more into synthwave with post-punk's vibes. But you probably know about it already, it's no surprise to anyone interested in nugaze-like music. The quality of their music rarely disappoints and the new album, again, is a special thing on this year's timeline. The synthesized sounds and beats create engaging compositions enriched with guitar sounds (but they sit in the backgrounds, rarely driving the whole music structures) and with the airy backing vocals. Kat Day's vocals have this deep, post-punk hue, even though they are always properly dispersed and airy. 

But probably the most important thing is how well the band can adapt the synthwave's catchiness. Literally every song on the album has a memorable melody and constitutes a potential hit. In this sea of catchiness, I was particularly impressed by World on Fire with its minimalist but highly contagious chorus with a little unsettling lyrics.

Unity costs 7.99 GBP.

Saccades - Flowing Fades (2021)

Check: World on Fire

Country: UK

Genre: dreamy synthwave

Label: Invada Records

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Divide and Dissolve - Gas Lit (2021)

The Australian duo consisting of Takiaya Reed and Sylvie Nehill is known for their punk-like approach to music and loud and heavy sound. They just released their third album, Gas Lit, and it's both artistically satisfying and otherwise important. One could say "it's lit".

The artists are taking up fight for many noble cases, mostly revolving around the environment and the prosperity of the Indigenous people all over the world. They name their album many things, including "a call to transformation and freedom", a statement I find especially powerful. Also, it all feels very natural and true, which is certainly helped by the fact that both musicians are of the minority origins (Reed is Black & Tsalagi [Cherokee] while Nehill is Māori) which makes it easier for them to "carry their fight and ancestors fight forward each and every day, using the power of their performances to draw attention to the ongoing battle against systemic oppression".

They do what they do with the help of very loud and very powerful drone metal. The texture of their sound is as droney as it could be, it's coarse and irritating and very heavy. It is made of guitar and saxophone sounds that are so transmuted, they can be hardly recognized anymore. The atmosphere itself conveys the message in an impressive way, but if it was too little, there's also the monologue spoken by Minori Sanchiz-Fung, a Venezuelan artist of multiple interests, in Did You Have Something To Do With It and it makes the spines thrill.

Gas Lit costs 10.98 USD.

Check: We Are Really Worried About You

Country: Australia

Genre: drone metal

Label: Invada Records

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