Cephalo / Gloaming Point

A large part of Cephalo’s ascent in the ranks of Japanese shoegaze was the rate at which they released material, starting with their debut EP Wind Surfing School in mid-2024 and the full-length Fluorite Code at the end of that year. They followed it up with the Gloaming Point EP last November accompanied by a […]

DIIV / Boiled Alive

The album cycle for DIIV’s fourth album, 2024’s Frog In Boiling Water, kicked off with the viral soul-net.co infinite website/single in Fall 2023, while they were touring with Depeche Mode and carried on through 2025 before wrapping with the release of a live document of the album – Boiled Alive – which came out in […]

Mojave 3 – “Breaking The Ice”

Today’s release of the Mojave 3 reissues finally draws a line under that band’s tenure, and it’s a bittersweet moment. On one hand, it’s wonderful that these records are again in print and their existence should draw some attention from Slowdive’s new fans, but it’s also sad because there was a charm and magic in […]

AprilBlue -『ヴァージンノイズ』

Ahead of their final show next month, Tokyo dreampoppers AprilBlue have released their final single, 『ヴァージンノイズ』, which translates to “Virgin Noise” and in the words of singer Haruki Funasoko: “These are the lyrics I wrote while questioning the meaning of standing on stage with this band. I’m glad I was able to leave them behind. […]

Shallow – “Blow It All Away”

Toronto’s own shoegaze festival Loveless Fest dials up this weekend and while the lineup impresses with a balance of higher profile international (read: American) acts to spice up the locals from the GTA and southern Ontario, there’s some domestic acts from a little further afield who bring an extra element of discovery to the schedule. […]

Mojave 3 / Demos ’97

So as my Mojave 3 reissue box set winds its way to me in the gentle collective embrace of the United States Postal Service and Canada Post, I have come to terms with the fact that the band, formerly on hiatus, have formally flipped that switch to disbanded and that there will be no more […]

musbime -『流星群のあと』

Tokyo’s musbime are relative newcomers, having been active only since 2024, but have already made an impression with their debut EP 煌めきを凌いで (Brave The Blinding), which came out in late April. Like most of their peers, shoegaze is only one of the genres they’ve absorbed into their sound – there’s math in the guitar lines, […]