Parannoul / Sky Hundred

Patron saint of anonymous Asian bedroom shoegazers Parannoul sort-of-surprise-released his new album Sky Hundred this past Saturday. I say “sort-of” because he’d hinted at it via his socials this past week, showing screen shots of tracklistings, and he’d released a new single from it this past May; sure, it could have been a one-off, but […]

Deary – “Selene”

Deary have been canny enough about the timing of their new releases that I don’t think, “oh I just posted them a couple weeks ago” – it’s been over a month since they unveiled their last new single “The Moth” so I’m totally fine with shining the spotlight on the follow up, “Selene”. Of the […]

Moon In June – “Slowdive”

Tokyo’s Moon In June may have been born into shoegaze – their 2020 EP 海鳴り doesn’t spare the reverb, distortion, or glide guitar – but they’ve grown through 2022’s extended player Evergreen towards last year’s debut full-length ロ​マ​ン​と​水​色​の​街 (“Romance and Soft Blue City”) to reside in a neighbourhood where power pop and dreampop intersect, and […]

Asobi Seksu x Boris

Japanese-American shoegazers Asobi Seksu‘s final full-length album was 2011’s Fluorescence, but their final release of new music came in November of 2012, with a Record Store Day release. It was a 7″ split single with Japanese noise-rock gods Boris wherein each covered one of the other’s songs. Appropriately, Asobi Seksu took “Farewell” from Boris’ 2005 […]

Shojoskip – “Glory Of The Snow”

Another act spoken of in hushed tones when speaking of Japanese shoegaze is Shojoskip, though until recently following up on their praise has been a bit tough. The co-ed outfit formed in 2007 and while streaming services have long had their two 2008 releases – Sweet Days and Her Last Kiss, their split album with […]

Whitelands – “Cheer”

Whitelands opened up the year with the best shoegaze debuts of the year in Night-Bound Eyes Are Blind To The Day, and clearly cognizant of the fact that time moves fast and memories are short, they’ve just released a new non-album single to remind you that their lush dreampop is some kind of delicious. Regarding […]

Hitsujibungaku – “Burning”

Tokyo trio Hitsujibungaku had their breakthrough – if you define breakthrough as coming onto my personal musical radar – with their 2023 single “More Than Words”, which aside from being an absolute earworm, was used to soundtrack the season-closing scene of immensely popular anime series Jujutsu Kaisen. It wasn’t the band’s first swing at soundtracking […]

Beachside Talks – “Cassis”

One of the more exciting/interesting new acts out of Japan to my ears is Tokyo’s Beachside talks. They made their debut last Winter with the Marble Town EP, which showcased their sweet, Sundays-esque jangly dreampop and if that was their whole vibe, that’d be more than enough. But the two new singles they’ve rolled out […]