expect delay
Once upon a time – like 10 years ago or so – if you needed a real atmospheric, synth-drenched ’80s-inspired soundtrack, you’d probably call on Chromatics as that vibe was their stock in trade. Of course, with the band no longer existing following the drawn-out drama of Dear Tommy’s non-release and the departure of 3/4 […]
Fazerdaze returned to North America last year twice – a short solo tour in May around a couple festival appearances, and a more thorough itinerary as a duo supporting Australian psych outfit Pond around the release of her second album Soft Power. The latter included an appearance at Seattle’s KEXP for a four-song live set […]
I would like to not take that lowest hanging of fruit and make some comment about having “cigarettes” in your band name demanding you play dreamy, atmospheric guitar music with reverb pedals turned up to 11, but Bubble Tea and Cigarettes and don’t make it easy. Originally from New York, relocated to Los Angeles and […]
Montreal dream-funk (my genre name, stamped it, no take backs) trio Men I Trust turned out to be one of my key pandemic bands, having first seen them months before the world shut down and living through lockdown in the warm tones of Oncle Jazz. Their attempts to tour 2021’s Untourable Album became a bellwether […]
Brighton relocated to London newcomers alphabet are just three songs into their career, but have already made some noteworthy fans such as Fontaines D.C. and Shame. And they are definitely RIYL for fans of that modern flavour of post-punk, though they go back to the old school for the foundation, adding a healthy dollop of […]
Nagoya dreampop duo Blurred City Lights came just about out of nowhere last year – okay, out of their bedroom studios – with their full-length debut 天使のいない街で that ended up with a highly-coveted position on my 2024 year-end list. It did this on the strength of its vision, songwriting, and managing the impressive task of […]
As recently as last November, when She’s Green came onto my radar, the Minneapolis five-piece looked to be another regional genre favourite, known to locals and a handful of subreddits. Now it looks like the word might be just a little more out, with their being attached to an international (well, two countries) tour with […]
The inevitable yet still wholly welcome OG lineup The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart reunion started out at a snail’s pace – announced in August of last year with an extensive Spanish tour starting this month. They’ve since added a couple of Italian dates for May and a UK run in November, but North […]
Osaka’s Yuragi nearly perfected the Japanese dreampop/shoegaze aesthetic of mating cacaphonous noise with sugar-sweet melody with their first releases – 2016’s Nightlife EP and 2018’s Still Dreaming, Still Deafening – so it’s not entirely surprising that their subsequent releases didn’t bother retreading the same ground. Both 2021’s For You, Adroit It But Soft and 2023’s […]
Slowdive kicked off the latest/last leg of their North American touring behind Everything Is Alive this past Saturday night here in Toronto, and I think that of the seven (!) times I’ve seen them since they reunited in 2014, it may have been the best overall performance yet. The sound was fantastic, as per usual […]
