OutControlJoys - S/T (2025)

The Nepalese band OutControlJoys have recently released their debut full-length album and it makes me, once again, amazed how great music can be born in the most distant places and thanks to Bandcamp find its way to my speakers. Because indeed, the self-titled debut is top-shelf DIY shoegaze noisy music.

Already the instrumental intro lets you know that these guys know how to create engaging and immersive guitar compositions. It's melodic but also noisy, just how we like it. And it's even before the airy vocals are introduced! From the second track, Paribartan, the music turns real shoegaze. And I'm not talking some indie rock with hazey elements. No, it's old-school shoegaze, maybe also because of some lo-fi vibes that make the whole thing perhaps noisier and airier than it otherwise would be. Which is great! 

And yes, this is my first ever Nepalese artist on the blog! Woo-hoo for all finding-new-music-from-all-over-the-world enjoyers! I really recommend trying out the band's debut album to all indie shoegaze lovers.

The self-titled album costs 7 USD.

Check: Paribartan

Country: Nepal

Genre: DIY shoegaze

Label: Ris Records

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신윤수 - Wherever (2025)

Another proof that shoegaze music fits so well into the Asian scene that serves as a real hub for the beautiful, noisy music. For Korean artist 신윤수, Wherever is the third short EP in her discography filled with the perfect balance between the soft and airy and the loud and heavy.

"Crafting emotionally textured soundscapes rooted in solitude, memory, and motion", the Korean musician is deeply rooted in the genre's 90s original sound, but adds the contemporary sound quality and the overall good flow. Like in the fantastic old table and its flowing backing vocals that drive the whole composition. It's melodic enough but the artist doesn't over do it: it's not twee, it's not indie pop, it's a real guitar banger of an EP with airiness and ethereality woven inside.

Especially when the album looses all the breaks when it comes to the guitar noise. It's not a coincidence that there's post-rock mentioned in the description. I just wish it was longer: the album and the tracks themselves, I feel like they don't reach the whole potential before they're cut short.

Wherever costs 10 USD.

Check: old table

Country: South Korea

Genre: melodic shoegaze

Label: THE VAULT

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Gloios - Polvorosa (2025)

A beautiful mess from Brazil; Rafael Xavier aka Gloios, the artist from São Paulo, himself calls his new album a mess that encompasses a shitload of various music genres. But the coherent slowcore warm atmosphere brings everything together, making Polvorosa a beautiful, musical journey.

Let me quote the artist further: "post-rock, ambient music, metal, dream pop..." but also Brazilian music like MPB, forró, samba, xote, baião which I know nothing about, all of this makes up the third album in Xavier's discography. Everything is based on slightly industrial electronica, but there is also some, very distant, very echoey and everything but clear vocals. And it doesn't really matter because you can hear the genres like you can see pebbles in muddy water. There is something there, but who knows what exactly? And the water is warm and welcoming, slightly terrifying, but you have to go in and let it go.

I love it when music clearly shows where it comes from and you can have little doubt that this is the sound from Brazil. There is so much going on there: various rhythms, paces, dance moves, everything slightly hidden but also clearly felt. Just listen to the weirdness of Boiafria or my favourite, very mysterious Ficha.

Polvorosa costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: Ficha

Country: Brazil

Genre: ethereal eclectic slowcore?

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Neue Welt - Spánek ti bude peřinou (2025)

Before attending a festival, I have a habit of listening to each and every artist performing there not to miss anything interesting. And this brings sometimes fantastic results as has been the case of the Praha-based band I discovered before this year's Pohoda Festival. I can't wait to hear their artsy noise rock live!

The band makes me think of this year's comeback made by the French band Kwoon. Similar vibes when it comes to the artsy approach to rock that meets incredible noise where necessary. Also the instruments feel familiar: not everything is done by the guitars here. Quite the opposite, the big role is played by violins and piano keys that both add up to the incredible atmosphere of the new release. There are segments that feel like instrumental ambient, some other even almost like a big band meeting dark jazz. But most of the time, the Czechs focus on their beautifully weird art rock meets folk meets post-rock compositions.

I love every aspect of the album. The louder parts feel euphoric, the slower feel artsy, the ones with vocals are melodic and captivating. I genuinely feel like I discovered a hidden gem just outside of my country's borders. And as already mentioned, soon I'm gonna see the band live at Pohoda. If I survive til the middle of the night that is.

Spánek ti bude peřinou costs 7 EUR.

Check: Kdybych brečet mohl

Country: Czechia

Genre: noisy art-rock

Label: 6000 Ωveček

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Favorite Obsession - Bliss (2025)

Four years after their debut EP and only a month or so after their live appearance at Kraków's Shoefest, the young Czech band Favorite Obsession released their first ever full-length album entitled in the most shoegaze way possible. Bliss makes a promising debut with a number of melodies that are as catchy as one would like.

Recorded "in-between line-up changes, mental breakdowns and gender changes", the album presents a case study of indie rock music with a heavy influence from shoegaze and dream pop genres. There is a healthy dose of noise in this material (which was especially noticeable live!), but it's more about melodies, the fun from singing them aloud, the energy coming from the stage. At least in most of the songs because (Inside) I Bloom makes a beautiful, very intimate and emotional (just take a look at the lyrics, the song starts with "20 year old crisis/6 strings are helping me survive") ballad to provide some balance.

There is something weird going on in Taxi Driver and I can only assume that it's a way to stress that (Inside)... is such an important part of the album. If this is true, I'd make the silence shorter. Because it's not the end of the release! Of the engaging, catchy and very emotional release to be truthful.

Bliss costs 7.5 EUR (180 CZK).

Check: (Inside) I Bloom

Country: Czechia

Genre: noisy indie rock

Label: Golden Hive Studios

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Lazy Legs - Tower (2025)

It's been 8 years (!) since the Oregon band Lazy Legs appeared on this blog with their EP called Chain of Pink. Now, after what seems to be some changes in the line-up, they released their third album and enchanted me with their minimalist yet very airy take on slowcore kind of noise music.

The artists admit to take inspirations from a variety of genres, mixing "shoegaze, grunge, slowcore and doomgaze" into one, moody kind of music. It surely is slow, it's very airy and based on the rougher nature of guitar sounds. It feel also a lot like a letter of admiration to minimalist rock music usually made by duos (I'm thinking The Kills, but maybe it's because I've been listening to them a lot recently). It's maybe because the band now only consists of Laura Wagner and Michael Tenzer while before, there was also Nicholas Piontek playing drums. Regardless of the reasons, the band's music feels now closer to the audience, honest and beautiful in this desert, grunge way.

The rough guitar makes here a beautiful dialog with vocals that are not only made airy. They are literally very often just backing vocals playing the main part of the song. It makes the compositions well-balanced but also very, very dreamy regardless of the heaviness of the music. 

Tower costs 5 USD.

Check: Rot

Country: Oregon, US

Genre: shoegazey slowcore

Label: Wild Patterns

Lazy Legs - Chain of Pink (2017)

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Go With Strangers - Ave, Reverie (2025)

Remember when mum used to tell you not to go with strangers? Well, you definitely can do that with this one. Eugene San is based in Malaysia and makes music as one-man band to "face his social anxiety". And the results? A fantastic set of noisy shoegaze songs.

I love how immersive the noise can be. When listening to songs like Breathe In, what you breathe in is the reverbing air and dreams that flow around trying to drown you in. And sometimes it is the shoegazey, dense, overwhelming kind of noise, but sometimes it can go in more surprising directions with some metal riffs in Misery (You'll Never Break Me). And I really can hardly say which song here is my favourite. The artist has a very special gift of writing very well-leveled compositions and every one of them is worth the listerner's attention. In the end, I chose Further with its captivating melody and tasty noise, but it could as well be any other track.

Interestingly enough, the album was made out of "fascination with the feeling of “Sonder” (...), which is the realisation that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own – populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and craziness", a theme good for a whole book, but really works as a base for a music album as well. The artist concludes that the album may be "a warm greeting, and also a bittersweet farewell, to dreams and daydreams". So it matches everyone's life at some point, no doubt about it.

Ave, Reverie costs 8 USD.

Check: Further

Country: Malaysia

Genre: immersive solo shoegaze

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Waves Crashing - Effection (2025)

The Cascadian shoegaze is not something I talk about every day, but maybe it'll change since Waves Crashing, a band from Washington state, released their debut album and it kind of rocks. If you need some tasty retro noisy vibes in your life, this is the address.

The retro vibes here are omnipresent. It is a noisy rock blessed by RIDE and The Jesus and Mary Chain: the melodic guitar music with a layer of fuzziness to make it even more beautiful. And the melodic aspect is dominant here, my favourite track, Comatose is a perfect example here. The way an unnerving and disturbing word is shaped into a fantastically catchy and airy chorus is done in a true classic shoegaze fashion. Just look at it: "Something out my window/I feel it close/Try to stay normal/In a comatose".

And what accompanies the lyrics is guitar music as fuzzy as one should expect. There are riffs that make it outstanding (like the finish in In My Head), but they are mostly just complimenting the airy vocals. Which is not a bad thing. I personally thing that the more atmospheric ballad-like the band gets towards the end of the release, the slightly less interesting the music. Slightly. Good thing that they finish with a remix of Comatose as this tells me they know they have a real hit in their portfolio.

Effection costs 9 USD.

Check: Comatose

Country: Washington, US

Genre: retro noise rock

Label: Neon Sigh / Audiomanic Music

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Glazyhaze - SONIC (2025)

Two years after their debut album, the Italian, "gritty yet dreamy" shoegazers, for whom the noise and the melodies can easily coexist together, are back. The new album takes the audience for a brief, but wonderful trip into the hazy soundscapes of indie rock melodies and fuzzy guitars.

The band have supported or will soon support quite big players of the noisy pop-rock music (Slow Crush, The Raveonettes, Softcult) which is great. Nothing makes me as happy as seeing artists who deserve it being recognized. And the Italians surely do. They try to balance the noisy atmosphere of shoegaze with extremely melodic pop songs, perhaps slightly towards the latter. But it works, the results are as catchy as songs can be, especially in the first part of the album with What a Feeling and Nirvana really standing out.

The song that best represents the second half is Slap, a perfect example of a well-written chorus. The album is said to touch the notion of "emotional contrasts across its two distinct halves that reflect light and dark". Its visual representation is the cover art with a match about to die down, the moment right between the two opposites. You can kind of hear it in the music too, but I wouldn't say it's the first thing that catches attention of the listener. More than the ideological basis, one focuses on how perfectly catchy the songs are. Well done.

SONIC costs 10 EUR.

Check: Slap

Country: Italy

Genre: melodic shoegaze

Glazyhaze - Just Fade Away (2023)

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Cloakroom - Last Leg of the Human Table (2025)

Smooth vocals meeting harsh, grunge-like guitars, this is Cloakroom, a band "hailing from the harsh realms of Northwest Indiana" to show us their new, fourth in general, album called Last Leg of the Human Table. 

This is the kind of music that if it wasn't for the airy vocals, would certainly be classified in another genre than I do it. And I think of it as dream pop that went mad and started a noisy brawl in a guitar shop. The guitars sounds in various combinations: sometimes more melodic, sometimes more nerve-wrecking, are the main line of attack on the audience's ears. This lasts until the band suddenly steps on the brakes and delivers a rather soothing ballad or a indie pop singer/songwriter piece. Who knows what the next track will bring? I think it's rather a plus of the release, even if the band sounds best when the brake pedal is never touched.

Last Leg of the Human Table costs 9.99 USD.

Check: Clover Looper

Country: Indiana, US

Genre: (various kinds of) dreamy

Label: Closed Casket Activities

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Kestrels - Better Wonder (2025)

Coming from Nova Scotia, Canada, Kestrels is a love child of one Chad Peck. For some reason, I've never heard of the band although they play my kind of music and they do it for well over a decade now. Better Wonder is their fifth album so far and its catchy melodies and non-overwhelming noise-filled arrangements caught my attention with a fuzzy grip.

The release is filled with songs that are so memorable perhaps because they had been brewing for years. As the band mentions, the good amount of them comes from Peck's never released solo album. This time around, time helped the material grow to shine with this shoegazey/noise rocky shine that involves a soothing vocal, hearty lyrics and comforting fuzz in the backgrounds. It does feel a bit as if it was a solo album, making me appreciate the small scale beauty of the songs. It's fun, it's sunny, it's easily approachable. It's surf rock if it was possible to surf in Nova Scotia (which, I had to google, is in fact possible. But probably a bit cold).

The only thing I don't like on the album are those accentuated rock-like solo riffs taking the lead from time to time. But it's just a personal preference. What I like is certainly Dream of You in Black, as it is described, "a synthed-out Robert Smith-style love song to a fictional goth girl". I'm not an expert on The Cure, but I can hear that.

Better Wonder costs 10 USD.

Check: Dream of You in Black

Country: Nova Scotia, Canada

Genre: noise (surf-)rock

Label: Darla Records

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Type Foundry - Type Foundry (2025)

Luke Buneo, a solo artist from Phoenix, Arizona released his first ever EP and I have to say: I've heard worse debuts. The airy vocals (and backing vocals!) with quite rough-sounding guitars in the backgrounds create a wonderful atmosphere from the borders of one's dreams.

Those rocky music is what I hear the most on the album. The guitar backgrounds sometimes sound like slightly tamed MBV's madness (Dawgs) and sometimes like "just" a grunge/rock/indie riffs that are catchy and filled with raw energy. This makes an interesting comparison with the very dreamy vocals and slower compositions that make me think of Ruby Haunt (Working the Jaguar). In general, this short album is very well thought through and well-rounded, especially for a solo musician's debut release. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the artist cause there's never enough of interesting solo shoegaze projects.

Type Foundry costs 7 USD.

Check: Dawgs

Country: Arizona, US

Genre: solo shoegaze

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FOG - fogesque II & III

I feel like recently, shoegaze from South Korea is defined by solo acts who are more into the bedroom pop-side of the noisy genre than the fully fleshed-out bands. FOG is the latter so I had to check them out (I remember their first album, but it was soo long ago! (I mean five years)). And the level of pure noisy guitars is just fantastic.

The band released two full-length albums pretty much at the same time, so I will post about both. fogesque II  and fogesque III have pretty much the same vibes and can be treated as one, long and loud whole. The first thing you notice is that it's not your hi-fi, high-brow, "let's make the tiniest notes audible" kind of music. It is extremely noisy with this lo-fi guitar noise that can easily overwhelm you if you listen loud enough. The notion of the garage music can probably be applied here.

But the noise is definitely the only appealing aspect of the releases. The band is very fluent at creating particularly airy segments (like the end of Facade, probably my favourite track here), but it probably shouldn't be surprising given the band's name. Overall, I'd say that the first album of the two is better, the songs are more compelling and involving. Still, both are worth trying, that's for sure.

fogesque II costs 7 USD, fogesque III costs 7 USD.

Check: Facade

Country: South Korea

Genre: garage shoegaze

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93MillionMilesFromTheSun - Let Go (2024)

The British nugaze powerhouse is a frequent guest on this blog and there are good reasons for it. Led by Nick Noble, the noisy collective released their new album (I can't count so well to tell you which one in their discography) when other people were just getting calmer before Christmas.

It's their signature sound: you have to dig deep into the layers of noisy guitars, samples and whatnot to find the soft vocals and melodies. But if you do that, you are rewarded with some most beautiful and catchy songs on the shoegaze market, as in Sleep for example. This track could easily be an indie rock hit if stripped down of the noisy elements, but it'd lose a lot of its charm, no doubt about it. The punch, the melancholia lie in the overwhelming music the band donates right into the audience's ears. Sleep is dethroned as my best-loved later in the album by Only Living Now, which became one of my favourite songs at the beginning of the new year.

If I have to have one complaint, it's that it's too long for my attention span. Interestingly, Noble states that it was their most difficult album to finish and show to the world due to the band's lineup changes (which I don't hear in their sound at all) and personal problems. 'If I'm honest,' he adds, 'I'm not sure I still do want it to come out'. I, for one, am keen to say that I'm very happy it did in the end. Made the year's end better than it could have been.

Let Go costs 7 GBP (8.5 EUR).

Check: Only Living Now

Country: UK

Genre: guitar nugaze

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Psychic Scream - Psychic Scream (2023)

The "melt your face noise punk from the depths of hell", the depths of hell meaning North Carolina, band called Psychic Scream is a new thing that follows the trail of great American bands that combine nugaze with very aggressively heavy and noisy music. Connor Regan, who is responsible for this commotion, showed it on his self-titled debut EP.

I love how uncontrollably noisy the music is. While the melodies are very catchy, the vocals appropriately dreamy, the music beneath them (and above and around really) is a chaotic storm of noise: the guitars wreck your nerves, the audio effects make your brain scream and the drums march in extremely fast, mesmerizing pace. Regan didn't do the whole thing by himself, but I admire his music taste with the psychedelia and doom showing their influences everywhere on the album. The pure chaos of noise rock, however, is what I hear the most here and I love how overwhelming it gets and how well it works with psychedelic/nugaze vocals. Great debut.

Psychic Scream costs 4.20 USD.

Check: Fairweather Friends

Country: North Carolina, US

Genre: noise-gaze

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Goofy Ginz - 'Twas Fun (2023)

An alt rock post-hardcore band is a rare thing on my blog, but the Polish band of Goofy Ginz draws from so many interesting music genres that I couldn't just miss on their debut album. 'Twas Fun surprised me with the amount of noisy and atmospheric moments that make the music here richer and deeper.

The vocals are very post-hardcore-like: sometimes cleanish, sometimes desperate-sounding in true screamo-like fashion. But unlike I'd presumed, the compositions are very interesting: they are long and attacking the audience with loud guitar passages that makes me think of many genre inspirations from psychedelic mesmerizing rock to atmospheric post-rock (Rav Muff) with great quality of guitar sound. But that's not all, there's also some more exotic, from my perspective, elements like some ska and hip-hop bits. A lot is going on from the beginning to the end of the album and it's one of those that make boredom out of the question.

'Twas Fun costs 3.5 EUR (15 PLN).

Check: Doomed

Country: Poland

Genre: post-hardcore noise rock

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Solenoide - Casa de Islandia (2023)

Inspired by the novel by the Romanian writer Mircea Cărtărescu, the Peruvian band Solenoide started their musical journey five years ago and this year was the highest time for them to release their debut EP. And they did so and called it Casa de Islandia.

Led by Laura Rosales and Oscar Contreras, the outfit embraced the very noisy, very ethereal genre of guitar music that is as close to shoegaze as it is to dream pop. The music feels psychedelic and chaotic, but it is very coherent with the overall hazy and dreamy vibe of the album. And so are the mixed, male and female, vocals that sing out very melodic and lively tunes. In fact, the tracks on the EP all are extremely catchy and in this aspect, they feel like (dream) pop music could be one of the inspirations. Even though sang in Spanish, the melodies stick to your head with ease. Especially when drowned in the uber-airy backing vocals.

According to their own words, the title's Iceland is a country that is close to their artistic hearts. And no wonder, the ethereal vibes of their music certainly would fit into the noisy scene of the country in the Far North. 

Casa de Islandia costs 4 USD.

Check: Casa de Islandia

Country: Peru

Genre: melodic noise pop

Label: Catenaria Discos

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Nossiennes - Fresh Water Objects (2023)

The British band of Nossiennes appears on this blog quite reguralry. But there is a good reason for this: they release new stuff frequently and the new stuff is always a good stuff. It's no different with this year's Fresh Water Objects album.

Released, as always, by Shore Dive Records, the new album is long. This comes from the fact that for the band, a good composition needs time to properly develop and usually involves long, psychedelic and guitar-filled passages that aim to mesmerize the audience and swallow them completely. In this hazy and noisy environment, the vocals are only something that happens from time to tie: they are very much hidden in the backgrounds and dispersed so the music itself is put in the foreground. The peak of the airiness of this music is reached in the album's final track, Mell's Dream, that actually sounds as if it was not a noise rock song but a sacral event. 

Fresh Water Objects costs 5 USD.

Nossiennes - Liminal (2022)

Nossiennes - Vivere (2020)

Check: So That You Form a Hollow

Country: UK

Genre: noisy psychedelic rock

Label: Shore Dive Records

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Strangers in My House - Leave It Undefined (2023)

Although on the local stage, they feel like they have been around forever, technically speaking, the Kraków-based Strangers in My House have only just released their debut LP. And with Leave It Undefined , the band proves that they are one of the best noisy bands in the country and perhaps one of the most underrated ones in general.

The band is known for their love for classic shoegaze music (RIDE for instance) and it's clearly felt in their songs. The hazy guitars backgrounds give away those inspirations pretty easily: while the songs in general are pretty much traditionally formalized, the chaos in the backgrounds can be pretty impressing. But this noise and this chaos are mostly kept in the backgrounds give way to the melodic vocals by Magdalena Radecka. Those are quite far from the distorted shoegaze standards and bring more of the fun, indie rock vibes. Indeed, the band admits that they wanted to keep the debut album in a more "energetic and groovy" atmosphere, compared to the previous releases (which is especially audible in the swift and surprisingly fast Destination Point).

The symbol of their musical road is Words, a song that featured on their very first single in 2019, now, in an improved form, is one of the highlights of the debut album. And to be honest, next to all of the tracks on this short album deserve to be called "highlights".

Leave It Undefined costs 7 EUR (30 PLN).

Strangers in My House - Strangers in My House (2020)

Check: Destination Point

Country: Poland

Genre: noise indie rock

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Draag - Dark Fire Heresy (2023)

The Californian band Draag debuted back in 2018 and it's finally time they released a follow-up album. They filled this year's Dark Fire Heresy with high-quality nugaze music so it has everything a fan of the genre could want.

Their Facebook account includes a super short but extremely accurate description of their music: "a storm in slow motion". The shoegaze guitar effects, together with the overall energy and might of the sound make incredible impression: the best artists of the genre would agree here I'm sure. Another thing is that the music doesn't feel repetitive in the modern shoegaze context. There are electronic elements that add up to the uniqueness of the music, but, mot importantly, the compositions feel very fresh. Maybe it's not Flaming Lips, but there's a good deal of psychedelic experimentation here as well.

It all results in exciting, lively but also very noisy compositions. The quality of the vocals, in my eyes (ears), qualifies the music more as nugaze than the modern take on the classic shoegaze music. It's more flow-rich and soothing than dispersed and hazy. But it doesn't really matter as the final result is the same: overwhelmed and blessed audience. 

Dark Fire Heresy costs 9 USD.

Check: Demonbird

Country: California, US

Genre: psychedelic nugaze

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