Shimmerance have been waiting for this. The Moscow outfit formed in 2016 with a dreamy, clean approach to shoegaze, but artistic differences and member turnover delayed delivery of a debut album. Now their self-released self-titled effort is here and, initially, it feels like the band might be too eager to make up for lost time. ‘Scryscraper’ clatters and rushes along, […]
Read moreYou can know that Insect Ark’s third album is the product of erstwhile members of Swans, SubRosa, and Angels of Light, released through experimental metal label Profound Lore, and inspired by a recurring nightmare, and it still won’t properly prepare you for ‘The Vanishing’. This is sonic gloom, this is a far-off ominous storm cloud given up-close sound, this is sunlight-free […]
Read moreIt will surprise no one that a band named after a simian spaceman, with song titles like ‘Bandage of Scat’ and ‘Put Your Hands Up If You Like Sloths’, haven’t always taken things seriously. And Parachute for Gordo undoubtedly delight in the improvised, the unconventional, and the downright silly. But that doesn’t mean the Aldershot trio lack dedication- a band […]
Read moreVasa’s debut album was a shot of adrenaline- a much-welcome flash of movement and colour into the sometimes stoic and sepia-toned world of post-rock. It was punk rock, really. So the news that their sophomore effort would be an ambitious concept album, “a sonic exploration of coming to terms with the pains of ageing by reconnecting with our own individual […]
Read moreThe first EP from this slightly-supergroup was a writhing nest of riffs, rage, heat and light. Erstwhile members of Bastions, Sleep Beggar, Zoax and Good Tiger combined to create organic hardcore that immediately felt established and essential. Five years later and follow-up ‘Young, Grieven’ isn’t so explosive but is gifted with the same gritty, immediate energy and new sludgy textures. […]
Read moreSam Molstad has a way with titles. Over the past decade he’s used words from science and nature to label his self-produced sounds and they so often make perfect sense. ‘Ascending the Hill, ‘Off to Sea’, ‘Stasis in Green’. Even if you haven’t heard any of his previous outings under the Orchard Thief moniker then the name of the first […]
Read moreHoly Fawn’s 2018 album, ‘Death Spells’, was a very special record indeed. But it didn’t necessarily come easy for the Arizona outfit, the result of years of focussed passion, hard work and careful planning. This is different. Where before there was only the band– writing and recording and mastering everything themselves- here there is Triple Crown Records and veteran producer […]
Read moreThe debut album by Ohio outfit, Honeymoon, is made of fantastic separate parts- chunky, post-hardcore guitars, spacey atmosphere, and plenty of 90s nostalgia. But too often the pieces don’t quite fit together. Where opener ‘Sensor’ should be seamless, it judders, and struggles to get going. Actually, it gets going fine, it’s just that it gets going about five times over in the […]
Read moreTides From Nebula shrunk to a three from a four-piece before recording this, their fifth full-length, but the pare down actually seems to have powered up their music. Oh, the Polish post-rock outfit have always favored the epic and atmospheric but, at its best, ‘From Voodoo to Zen’ crackles with new electricity and soars seriously spaceward. Opener ‘Ghost Horses’ swells […]
Read moreFirst, Caspian went dark. Their last album, ‘Dust and Disquiet’, might not have been their loudest but it was certainly their most intense- a storm cloud of post-rock influenced by anxiety, uncertainty and death. And then Caspian went quiet. That shadowy opus was easily a career-best but they’ve followed it up with five years of silence. The Massachusetts men don’t want […]
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