Hatchie – “Lose It Again”

The burning Marshall cabinet that opens the video for “Lose It Again” might imply that Australian dreampop queen Hatchie is entering her glam rock era, but it’s a feint as it abruptly cuts to Hariette Pilbeam riding in the back of a pick-up truck through the countryside, albeit with the pre-immolation 4×12″ in tow. After […]

Douglas Heart – “Komplex”

It’s a shame that Gothenburg’s Douglas Heart are so little-known that their Apple Music bio offers the most comprehensive backgrounder on the early aughts dreampop outfit, but at the same time, hats off to K. Ross Hoffman for managing to compile as much information as he did. I’ll refrain from repeating the whole bio, but […]

Blurred City Lights -「花束」

Nagoya’s Blurred City Lights released their very good double-EP-slash-second album Utopia/Dystopia earlier this year but today I’m going back not just to last year’s debut 天使のいない街で , but to their second-ever single 「花束」 (aka “Flower”), which they dropped in December of 2022 accompanied by a simple animated video. Why that song, and now? Well this […]

TTSSFU – “Studio 54”

Manchester’s Tamsin Stephens records and releases music as TTSSFU and while some might complain that it doesn’t fit the classic benchmarks of what gets called dreampop or post-punk, I challenge anyone to come up with better reductive pigeonholes for her hazy, angst-tinged, reverb-drenched bedroom pop. For the record, she accepts the labels gladly: For those […]

Pale Blue Eyes – “The Dreamer”

English trio Pale Blue Eyes having been honing their balance post-punk asceticism, indie jangle, New Wave synthesis, krautrock propulsiveness, and dreampop lushness over three records, most lately on New Place, released back in March. It’s a recipe that’s immediately familiar to those of a certain age or streaming service algorithm, but nudges on each genre […]

Pasteboard – “Freesoul”

If there’s a trend in Japanese shoegaze, it’s that the bands and records that are most hallowed are inevitably the ones that dropped one record a decade or more ago that everyone name-checks and adores, then disappeared off the face of the earth. Okay, this is probably quantifiably not true but is most definitely the […]

Jay Som – “Baybee”

I’ve been meaning to represent Jay Som on these pages since I started up, but just hadn’t gotten around to it – kind of like how I like all of her records, but just haven’t gotten around to adding any of their physical copies to my collection because, well, I dunno. So with news that […]

Whitelands – “Heat Of The Summer”

Just in time for the solstice, London shoegazers Whitelands have welcomed the Summer with their first new music since last year’s Night-Bound Eyes Are Blind To The Sky, available to stream or as a limited edition flexi-disc. Musically, it’s a short, jaunty – almost buoyant – tune suited to the season, and the production is […]