Tristan Perich & James McVinnie - Infinity Gradient (2025)

I dig pipe organ sound in anything. Give me Anna von Hausswolff's early releases anytime of day. But when I heard about this album where this instrument meets post-minimalism and "1-bit music", I had no idea what to expect.

Tristan Perich is well-known for his minimalist electronica (not by me cause that is, simply speaking, not my kind of music), James McVinnie is an acclaimed organist from NY and together they've created something they call "an hour-long symphony in seven movements for organ and 100 speakers in 1-bit audio". It sounds extremely impressive, probably more from the realm of modern art than music, but it doesn't matter to me much. What matters is that the album itself is so satisfying to listen to. Probably because all I hear is the organs i various compositions I have no ability to describe as I lack music knowledge. What I know is that the hour passed so quickly when I was submerged in the massive sound of the king of the instruments.

Infinity Gradient costs 9 EUR (8 GBP).

Check: Infinity Gradient: Section 7

Country: New York, US

Genre: organ-based orchestral neoclassical

Label: Erased Tapes Records

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Glimmer - Get Weak (2025)

They've been releasing singles since 2023 and now it's time for their debut album (which, honestly, is way a better tie line than many other bands). Glimmer (what an awesome shoegaze name!) are from New York and Get Weak showcases how fluent with hazy and loud music they are.

If I had a sheet with features of a perfect shoegaze album, this one would check all of them. The guitars build thick walls of sound that, additionally, has tendency to sound pretty rough on the edges (yeah, that's where all the grungegaze tags come from!). The songs are melodic and catchy. The vocals hazy and soft (with a hint of Americana in them? Or am I hallucinating things?). It's music that takes as much from the garage rock-and-roll as it does from the ethereal genres. My preference is when they shift into higher gear while maintaining the nice level of haziness.

When posting about their debut album, the band stated "We put everything we had into this record. There were moments of pure joy and sadness during the process, but it was well worth it, and we’re stoked for you to hear". And I have to say, it really was worth it.

Get Weak costs 10 USD.

Check: Sorrow Again

Country: New York, US

Genre: grungegaze

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Masma Dream World - PLEASE COME TO ME (2025)

Unsettling but spiritual, dark but filled with emotions, her live gigs are titled ceremonies. The Gabon-born and New York-based Devi Mambouka, known as Masma Dream World, opens up fantastic spaces to your personal use on her new album and it is recommended to follow her.

Her music involves "invokes, magic, and healing as a form of worship to the universal Dark Mother", making it clear that the experimental industrial dark ambient's biggest trait is its spiritual character audible in the forms of chants and backing vocals that are the leading force of the new album. But there is more, so much more. Even the pace changes as Seeking Your Protection offers a unique, industrial tribal vibes. Not every face of the artist on this album is what I like, but I appreciate the fact that the rather diverse album still feels like a coherent mass of sound.

I'm happy that I will be able to partake in one of her ceremonies during this year's dunk!festival in Ghent. I'm looking forward to this and getting ready my spiritual self. 

PLEASE COME TO ME costs 10 USD.

Check: O, Dark Mother

Country: New York, US

Genre: spiritual dark ambient

Label: Valley of Search

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MIZU - 4 | 2 | 3 (2024)

Issei Herr, better know as MIZU, whom Pitchfork described as "frequently gorgeous, at times unsettling, and constantly in flux", showed her third solo album earlier in the autumn. It is decorated with a beautiful and dark cover art that matches exactly the vibes of the cellist's music. 

The artist is known for creating "expansive soundscapes through her singular cello playing", but it is the first album where she turned from the ethereal, mysterious electronica to darker, more industrial corners of the music world. The picturesque description of the album on the artist's Bandcamp includes words such as "oppressive", "sinister" and "horror" which is all true, but there is still tons of other feelings in MIZU's tasteful soundscapes. There's love in the oppressive, there is kind in the sinister and dream in horror. I feel like this music has so many layers that you can't help but slowly dig deeper and deeper to find yourself buried by the heavy, multidimensional cello notes.

4 | 2 | 3 costs 11 USD.

Check: Fallout

Country: New York, US

Genre: dark cello soundscapes

Label: Carousel Productions

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Spotlights - Alchemy for the Dead (2023)

There is a visible and exciting wave of bands from the States, who combine nugaze and heavy rock/metal influences. One of them is the New York trio Spotlights, who debuted back in 2016 and this year released their perhaps best album to date, called Alchemy for the Dead.

Extremely heavy, crunchy guitars meet slowcore pace and blissfully soft vocals. This is Spotlights' path to the listeners' hearts. And it works like a charm. You can clearly feel on your shoulders the weight of this music: the metal-like riffs, the monumental cascades of guitar sounds, it all works great in the not-so-hasty or sometimes clearly as slow as possible pace. So the music is not far from bands like Cult of Luna, but the vocals are a perfect counter-weight here. In the Nothing, SOM or Holy Fawns' fashion, they are smoothed out to become a flow-rich, slow, but also super melodic addition to the heavy music.

To spice everything up, there are moments where the metal atmosphere take over and gives the blackened empowerment to the dreamy whole. Still, I don't think I'd call this music blackgaze, but heavy shoegaze makes sense to me. 

Alchemy for the Dead costs 9 USD.

Check: Sunset Burial

Country: New York, US

Genre: heavy nugaze

Label: Ipecac Recordings

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Laikamorí - △​△​△ (2023)

The Peruvian artists who currently live in US, Laikamorí, made me fall in love with their unique and weird music with their fantastic debut Persōna five years ago. Now, they are back and △​△​△ proves that the debut was not a coincidence.

Based on electronic music that can be both lively and energetic as well as dark and gloomy, Laikamorí's compositions spark awe with how uniquely they sound. The industrial influences take over most of the tracks but they have to share with almost-dub-like electronica and noisy ambient parts. And this all is accompanied by one of the most interesting vocals out there: high-pitched and dreamy that express this partly gibberish partly poetic lyrics to make everything glow with the most attractive kind of musical mystery. 

And this is the first time I can post here, under a band picture I took personally. Apart from being extremely talented, the two artists proved to be super friendly when they spent some time in Kraków back in 2021.

△​△​△ costs 10 USD.

Laikamorí - Persōna (2018)

Check: Amok

Country: Peru/New York, US

Genre: ethereal wave

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WatchCamp July-August '22 with glaston, The Heart of the Sun, Jellies, Jiangnan Shangguan, T R E M O U R S

glaston - I Am Whole

Yet another fantastic project from Switzerland; but the Zurich's outfit are not new to the music stage, they are around since 2014 and have released one full length album. The new singles are filled with very moody post-rock with classical elements and I hope the new album is released as soon as possible. This one track costs 1 USD.

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The Heart of the Sun - Probably Not

Stockholm-based Filiph Antonsson leads this music project that goes with moody but also pretty complex compositions and very sad vocals ornamented with voice samples and finished with mesmerizing psychedelic passage. It's a real autumn kind of music. The single costs 0.75 EUR (8 SEK).

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Jellies - Always

Two artists, Adam and Tommy live on the other sides of the Atlantic Ocean but they manage to create something very dreamy and very melodic together. Especially the first track here creates particularly moody atmosphere in this bedroom pop kind of style. Two songs cost 2.5 EUR (2 GBP).

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Jiangnan Shangguan - No Beginning Where Everything Ends

A member of the Californian post-rock outfit In Lights, Jiangnan Shangguan, created a deliciously atmospheric, ambient pop-like experiment. There are emotional vocals here but distant and covered by noisy music all around. The track costs whatever you want to pay.

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T R E M O U R S - Affectations

The Lauren Andino-Glenn Fryatt duo comes from Los Angeles and, very much in the Californian noise/dream pop fashion, released an extremely airy piece of melodic music. Andino's vocals are utterly oneiric while still managing to bring catchy melodies to life. Three songs cost 5 USD.

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Minaxi - Lazuleen (2022)

Minaxi are from New York but their inspirations reach more distant places. Their hit-worthy indie rock with some noisy elements can be admired on the band's sophomore album called Lazuleen.

The most interesting part of Minaxi's music is the multicultural dimension of their works as they blend the Western genres (psychedelia, shoegaze, dream pop, noise rock) with the South Asia's sufi music - no wonder the band calls it a "sonic buffet" for the audience to choose from. And similarly, on the language side, English dominates on the album but there are also part sung in Hindi audible. It is all because of one of the band's leaders, Shrenik Ganatra, who traces his origins to this region of the world. But the overall impression while listening to the band's music is that it is a well-done indie rock music that draws interesting flavours from various places. The guitars are very clearly the driving force of the compositions: sometimes rock-like heavy (like in Lost in the Water), sometimes more subtle. There's certainly some of the oneiric genres within the pool of inspirations but the music here can hardly be called noise pop/rock, it's more about the catchy melodies and either dance-inspiring energy or relaxing, mellow music subtlety.

Lazuleen costs 11 USD.

Check: The Deep Blue Sea Conveys Your Love

Country: New York, US

Genre: dreamy indie rock

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Holy Hum - Let It Be Desire (2022)

Five years ago, Andrew Lee released his brilliant second album All of My Bodies and stole my music heart. Since then, he seems to have moved to New York but the music he offers hasn't changed much. There's no vocals this time, but the complex instrumental side speaks for itself on Let It Be Desire.

This album feels extremely intimate with all those imperfect sounds and noises all over the place, with many silent interruptions, with the clearly audible soul poured into the compositions. They are neoclassically beautiful but also a bit noisy, very experimental, clearly meant to ask questions rather than provide answers. It's poetry turned into music and as such, it goes so well with the poem the artist mentions on his Bandcamp account, a poem in which he that states that "I have lived most of my life in the spaces of becoming". 

Let It Be Desire costs 9 USD.

Holy Hum - All Of My Bodies (2017)

Check: Faith in Doubt

Country: New York, US

Genre: experimental neoclassical

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Watchcamp March-April'22 with CERAS, Dream Suicides, Inner Mirror, Shallow Waves, Shuteye Unison

CERAS - 2022 Demo

The short album is "A glimpse at what's to come" from the Washington-based psychedelic rock artists who draw a lot from shoegaze's overwhelming sound with striking vocals. Certainly made me curious about the incoming music. Two tracks cost whatever you want to pay.

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Dream Suicides - It's Better Not To Say Anything

The Californian artist Daniel Romero has already a pretty impressive discography. The musician with a thing for Stranger Things the TV-series, released a new single filled with airy but also very melodic indie rock. Two songs cost 1 USD.

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Inner Mirror - Azaran 

Arturo Flores, a former member of the dream pop band Kordan, released a handful of EPs in the last months but my attention was drawn to the new single with its extremely warm and moody dream pop. It is partly so good due to the guest vocals by an artist called Coco, but also thanks to the airy and subtle music in the backgrounds from the New York artist. Two versions of the single cost 2 USD.

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Shallow Waves - Skin

Zaid Khan and his band are from Canada create some particularly noisy rock with post-punk influences and minimal, guitar-oriented vibes. There's something from shoegaze here, there's something from darkwave, definitely an interesting mix. Two tracks cost 4 EUR (5 CAD).

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Shuteye Unison - Pale Blue Dot | Severe Clear

Another Californians here; the band from Fairfax released an album over a decade ago and decided to "settle into fatherhood" only to come back with a new single now. They present a soft and subtle take on indie pop with heavy oneiric vibes all over. The two songs cost 2 USD.

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Thought Trials - Full of Sound and Fury, Signifying Nothing (2022)

Josh Martin comes from Buffalo and makes his music under the moniker of Thought Trials. After releasing several singles and EPs, this year the time has come for him to show the first LP called Full of Sound and Fury, Signifying Nothing, and, spoiler alert, it's really good.

The artist feels good in more than one convention; the album starts like a good old post-rock release should - with guitar-based, atmosphere-building composition that is being ornamented with moody spoken word samples. But already the second track, Kintsugi featuring Lauren Davis and Erin Malone of Greybloom, adds to this mix a real guitar riff-fest that is complimented with post-hardcore vocals that create this engaging, not-too-overwhelming mix of various approaches to good, mostly instrumental guitar music. And there are fragments that get close to instrumental ambient too, especially the most poignant track here, the album's closure in the depression-themed Belonging.

Let's not forget that track Hedonism is featured on the Ukraine Relief Compilation by The Post-Everything Collective, which, apart from the obvious, money-raising reasons, show-cases a huge range of big post-rock talents and the sole fact that Thought Trials is present there, speaks volumes.

Full of Sound and Fury, Signifying Nothing costs 10 USD.

Check: Guilt and Shame

Country: New York, US

Genre: solo dark post-rock

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Watchcamp - Best Singles of January-February'22 with Builder, Minaxi, Sole Solitude, Thy Pallor, Tukisigure

Builder - Terrapin

A german duo consisting of Emanuel Oropesa and Sebastian Balk released their third, slightly longer single and filled it with dark and massive guitar post-rock. The quality of their music is clear and the ability to crush the audience with sounds - wort admiring. The two songs cost 5 EUR.

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Minaxi - The Deep Blue Sea Conveys Your Love

Although they describe themselves as alternative rock band, the new single from the Americans from Minaxi is mostly about dreamy atmosphere and pop's catchiness. Also the remix made by Simon Scott shows vibes of utter ethereality and I dig it. The single costs 3 USD.

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Sole Solitude - MEDS

Distorted vocals and slow beats, extremely ethereal atmosphere and melodies. The Washington-based artist brings some very modern-sounding electronica meeting dreamy slowcore in his new single. Great tunes. Two tracks cost 7 USD.

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Thy Pallor - The Day Everything Begins​.​.​.

Turkish artist released their first single with clearly lo-fi but very moody and ethereal take on distorted post-metal music.The single costs 1 USD.

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Tukisigure - Inori 

The name of the Japanese project translates to "drizzling rain on a moonlit night" and fittingly, the artist presents music that is both ethereal and post-rock-heavy. The first track from them shows some technical difficulties but still promises some great music. The single costs whatever you want to pay.

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Christina Giannone - Glazed Vision (2021)

The New York City's Christina Giannone was introduced to the Past Inside the Present label back in 2019 but only now her first LP for them is released. I mean was in the last October when Glazed Vision was released with its drone soundscapes that accumulate like grey clouds over your head.

The whole album is absolutely filled with drone soundscape. The sounds twirl and create layers becoming considerably heavy and thick. But this is a peaceful music, very much leaning towards relaxation and self-reflection. Nocturnal music but without the element of danger and uncertainty. I feel like everything is fine and there's little to worry about when the short (for an ambient album) release is revealing its contents. And it is finished with a remix by worriedaboutsatan, which is a big deal on its own. 

Glazed Vision costs 6 USD.

Check: Divinity

Country: New York, US

Genre: dark drone

Label: Past Inside the Present

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Dronny Darko & Ajna - Radioactive Immersion (2021)

Dronny Darko a.k.a. Oleg Puzan is an artist from Ukraine (and the owner of one of the best musical nicknames out there) while Anja comes from New York. They both create very dark and kind of uncomfortable ambient music that can be admired on their album Radioactive Immersion.

The ambient here is called "dark and rusty", it certainly has very, very industrial vibes - with sounds that resemble those of an abandoned factory (or at least I would imagine they do). It is undoubtedly dark as well, creating this unnerving feeling of something lurking in the shadows, the feeling of constant danger. They put it together by creating a story told by the ambient sounds and by the description of the album: "Your headlamp sweeps the tunnel walls. Roots and moss stretch their tendrils out of the darkness in strange geometric patterns, mutated and fueled by water from the abandoned cooling chambers".

It sounds like something taken from Roadside Picnic or perhaps Annihilation. It is basically a chapter from a book or a quest from a video game if you will. But written with beautiful (and terrifying) ambient sounds.

Radioactive Immersion costs 7 USD.

Check: Uranium 235

Country: Ukraine/New York, US

Genre: industrial ambient

Label: Cryo Chamber

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The Antlers - Green to Gold (2021)

There's little doubt that NY's The Antlers are one of the most important slowcore acts out there. For me it was THE first slowcore band I encountered and their Hospice stayed with me for years. They are now back with their sixth long play called Green to Gold.

The Peter Silberman - Michael Lerner duo offers what they are known for: acoustic peaceful music with soft, delicate vocals. This and the subtle but also quite catchy melodies (Wheels Roll Home strikes with how catchy it is and at the time evokes country-like, delicately nostalgic feelings) go together so well. For me, the title of the album can refer either to the way day transforms into evening or summer into autumn. The same vibrant green into golden static feeling. If it is, it addresses the feeling of subtle nostalgia perfectly.

The whole thing is achieved with guitar and piano sounds with the company of drums. This is the core but it's not the whole thing as there is a whole range of various instruments, from banjo to clarinet, that sometimes result in a "small-scale" orchestral parts, as in, otherwise extremely mellow, It Is What It Is. But this non-invasive, subtle slowcore can evolve into full-blown dream pop atmosphere, as it does in the absolutely beautiful Volunteer and I dig it a lot.

Green to Gold costs (8 USD).

Check: Volunteer 

Country: New York, US

Genre: slowcore art rock

Label: Transgressive Records

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Secret Gardens - Tundra (2021)

Secret Gardens is one of those solo-projects that absolutely don't feel like they are made of only one person. The ranges of great, guitar post-rock music composed by the American artist, Greg Almeida, are meant to be admired on his debut album Tundra.

The project was designed as an "instrumental therapy for [the artist] though the lens of all the breathtaking things [he has] seen in nature". The first part is visible in I'm Fucking Tired of Being Sad's title and it can be one of the truest sentences in my life too. But there are also references to the nature with Kosciuszko (I believe it's more likely to refer to the mountain than to the Polish historical figure) and Whittier, AK (just google and look at the pictures of this Alaskan town!) but most importantly in the music itself - in most parts monumental, powerful and impressive in the same way high mountains are.

There are exceptions like Stilness, a bit toned down track with vocals by Erin Reus, the vocalist of the Australian band Stateside. And finished in a cool way too. Another one is the aforementioned Whittier, AK that, very fittingly, sounds like a blizzard heard from a sanctuary of a house. Very moody. The album works on audience as well as it seems to have worked on the artist and this is probably the ultimate recommendation.

Tundra costs 10 USD.

Check: Walk Away

Country: New York, US

Genre: monumental post-rock

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Monochrome - Monochrome (2020)

This is some story. Once upon a time, there was a shoegaze band called Monochrome who managed to perform only ones at the The Spiral rock club for around 20 people. Then they split up but we can now witness what we lost because of that as the live gig's recording has been found and released as this short EP.

And quite frankly, it's a sad story too. Monochrome's music seems to have been a top quality shoegaze music that could stand out even in its time - it was the early 90s, the peak of the first wave of shoegaze, now legendary, bands. Its slow waves generate such an intensive, nostalgic and immersive atmosphere that it makes me jealous of those 20 people who could experience it live. Not to mention that it is first of all thanks to the violins adding up to the overwhelming feeling of nostalgia. Especially that the vocals here sound like the male version of Slowdive's Rachel Goswell, helped from time to time by female backing vocals (that eventually take the lead) and it's such a good combo. The one track that really stands out is definitely Never Ending Eyes, one I'm going go back to often.

Monochrome costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: Never Ending Eyes

Country: New York, US

Genre: original shoegaze

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Occult Modem Settings - Like Like Like Like Like Like (2020) EN

It's not often that a music project's name so fittingly expresses its music content and it is so in the case of Steven Danglis and his project called Occult Modem Settings. Why? Because it's minimalist DYI electronics that at the same time is able to sound as if possessed by an evil spirit.

It's well audible on the new album called Like Like Like Like Like Like. It's filled with "stream-of-consciousness noisy drone pop" that in its diversity includes beautiful fragments filled with field recordings, tiny melodies and melancholic prettiness. But it can as well be brutal (Heave(n) or the sudden burst in Bird Brides) or subtly noisy (beautiful in A Very Watery River). And this is the clue of this beauty - that it includes so many approaches to itself.

Like Like Like Like Like Like costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: A Very Watery River

Country: New York, US

Genre: ethereal noise

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Never - We Will Collide (2020) EN

Never, one of many projects of this name and definitely the freshest one, is a band out from Brooklyn, that makes a very airy and blues-like dream pop. They debuted in September with an EP called We Will Collide and it was one hell of a debut.

The album is opened by their first single Sunken Wreck that is a peaceful, slow, pouring like magma ballad in which the vocals sound super blues-rock like or maybe even towards Americana, while the music background makes an airy, filled with backing vocals top-shelf dream pop. And this is how you could define the whole album. Dreamy atmosphere, breaking hearts in the lyrics and, as a result, bitter-sweet beauty. I'm very curious about the Americans' career in the future.

We Will Collide costs 7 USD.

Check: I Want to Believe

Country: New York, US

Genre: blues dream pop

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Laveda - What Happens After (2020) EN

The Jacob Brooks and Ali Genevich duo known as Laveda come from Albany, New York and have just released their debut album called What Happens After. So let's check what happened after the release.

The dream pop played by the band is based on the light, fast and melodic compositions in which "instantly you’re swept into a wave of cathartic distortion and noise". This sentence is taken from the official description while in reality, there's not that much of the noise. Sometimes it's very smooth dream pop with some exceptions (as the guitars in the background of Better Now), sometimes the experimental nature gets the upper hand as in the intriguing piece called CND.

Still, there's not that much of the latter. But having said that, the album is still nice to listen to and tracks such as If Only (You Said No) stay in the head for a longer time.

What Happens After costs 7 USD.

Check: If Only (You Said No) 

Country: New York, US

Genre: dreamy indie pop

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