shoegaze
Album review: Chihei Hatakeyama – ‘Late Spring’: a halcyon, beautiful ambient journey
Late Spring takes elements of IDM, shoegaze, and drone, and fashions them together in an impressionistic, delicious fog, with a pretty unique pastoralist feel, alive in nature. It’s pretty much the only album I’ve ever heard that makes me reconsider such unassailable classics of the slow leftfield as Stars of the Lids’ The Tired Sounds Of … and Windy & Carl’s Consciousness and made me think: whoah there guys, these records are a bit … sharp-edged, right? Take it easy. Let it breathe. That halcyon. Late Spring is bloody, bloody beautiful.
News: Cheval Sombre announces his second album of the year, following the deliciousness of ‘Time Waits For No One’; see the animation for ‘Well It’s Hard’
AFTER so many moons away from us Chris Porpora, aka Cheval Sombre, has delighted us, truly delighted us, with the gorgeous ambient shoegaze folk of Time Waits For No One just a month ago. If you haven’t caught up with that yet, then by crikey you must. We commented upon its release that: “Well, wow. Time …
Track and Album News: Lightning Bug offers up stunning, dreamy, lead single ahead of third album release
Purveyors of dreamy, transportative musicscapes, Lightning Bug, have just announced the release of their third album – ‘A Color of the Sky’ – which is out on their new label, Fat Possum on 25th June; you can pre-order the album here. Lightning Bug is the brainchild of musicians and friends Audrey Kang, Kevin Copeland and Logan …
Album review: Mint Julep – ‘In A Deep and Dreamless Sleep’: kaleidoscopic and dreamy shoegaze pop
FOLLOWING on from 2019’s sumptuous release Stray Fantasies, the duo of Hollie and Keith Kenniff return with a kaleidoscopic and dreamy shoegaze pop venture that is at times an extension of the previous album and yet also a progression of the creative partnership. From the album opener, “A Rising Sun”, this is not merely a collection …
Say Psych: Video Premiere – Wolfen – Soldier
Wolfen is the brain child of multi instrumentalist Shane Horgan and also features Jonathan Parkes & Alec Wood from kosmiche rockers Korb, Arboria and Mutante to name a few! BSM brings you the video premiere of ‘Soldier’ taken from their forthcoming LP which will be out soon via Up In Her Room. The trio come …
Track: GLOK – ‘That Time Of Night’: Andy Bell drops a surprise electro shimmer
HE’s NOTHING if not prolific these days, Andy Bell; the muse must properly be with him. Not content to announce a string of 12″, 10″ and 7″ epilogues to last year’s excellent The View From Halfway Down for Sonic Cathedral, he’s popped his GLOK guise on for a new single release that’s come totally out …
Premiere: French indie rockers Velvet Sunset release beautiful shoegaze of new single, Blue
French indie rockers Velvet Sunset release their new single Blue tomorrow, and ahead of it we’re delighted to be able to premiere it right here on Backseat Mafia today. The band, Eléonore on vocals and Max on guitar and bass, formed in 2016 and released their first album in 2019. Last year saw the release …
Track: Mint Julep’s ‘Pulse’ is a drop of electro-shoegaze brilliance
MINT JULEP, the halcyon, dreamy musical confection of Hollie and Keith Kenniff (aka Goldmind), are to release a new album, In a Deep & Dreamless Sleep, on Western Vinyl on March 19th; and one listen to the gorgeous “Pulse”, the new single, and you’ll see how deliciously apt a title they’ve picked. Beginning in clicky …
Track: Bleach Lab – ‘Flood’; a final shoegaze shimmer ahead of their debut EP
FIRST things first: we’ve got a bit of a crush on Bleach Lab. The Buckinghamshire dreampop outfit fronted by Jenna Kyle who now call South London home have just dropped one final single ahead of their debut EP, A Calm Sense of Surrounding, out in just ten days; it’s called “Flood”, it’s a heavier confection …
Track: Tuvaband’s ‘Post Isolation’ has a post-Cocteaus dreamy grace
TUVABAND is the dreamlike solo project of Norwegian singer, songwriter, and producer, Tuva Hellum Marschhäuser, whose third full-length offering to the world, Growing Pains & Pleasures, will out in the world in the May – and sees her change direction once again. Her first album, Soft Drop, was airy, ghostly and cinematic, while the second, …