WL//WH Favourite Shoegaze / Dreampop / Psychedelic / Indie Albums of 2024

• SOMESURPRISES  “Perseids” [Doom Trip]

Graced by rich aural hues pulled from Mazzy Star, Stereolab, Yo La Tengo, Velvets, Galaxie 500, Can, and Spiritualized, Seattle‘s somesurprises led by songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Natasha El-Sergany, almost five years since their self-titled debut, serve us the heady introspection of a sinuous lunar starbursting psychedelia that leavens and stretches the band’s bewitching contemplative electro-acoustic vision and drowsy misty ambience, expansive in its shimmery scope and untied in breathy emotions, to the furthest reaches of mesmerizing lucid dreams, over which the cool and calm enchant of airy vocals glide blissfully among the reverberations and sparkles intertwined by achingly emotive guitar bleeds, to cast a state of calming hypnosis, at times disjointed by restrained droning shoegaze distortions and looping repetition, while stirring orchestral strings and shivering organ swells sweep and waft into the mix adding texture, dimension, and lushness, to sublimely encapsulate the band’s surreal mystical dream-pop spell.

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• EPIC45 “You’ll Only See Us When The Light Has Gone” [Wayside & Woodland Recordings]

Since 2001, the longstanding English duo formed by Ben Holton and Rob Glover from their suburban hideout in the West Midlands have brought forth and refined, as well through a multifaced maze of side projects, a distinctive introspective poetic narrative laced with glimmers of nostalgia and tinges from the past, spanning ’80s sentimental New Wave trappings, atmospheric Post-Rock, pastoral Folk and emotive Electronica, infused with beguiling electro-acoustic textures, instrumental ambient fades, and found sounds, tinged with subtle hints of lingering edginess and blurred dissonances. Released on the first day of the year, the seemingly 13th album continues and brings to fulfilment their brand of ‘edgeland music’ and the fully sung readiness suggested by the previous 2020 LP. A sonorous vibrant bedrock of fractured, shuffling rhythm patterns punctuate effortlessly emotional-filled guitars, rich in crystalline reverberations, melancholic sparkling arpeggios, and sparse excruciating distorted resonances, enveloped by airy and evocative synth swathes and orchestral swells, to echo the confidential warmth, with vibrating undertones, of unease embodied by layers of nostalgic and wistful, at times resentful, vocal interplays, carrying a wide breadth of deeply felt emotions and intimate perspectives, through a series of keen observations inspired by their immediate surroundings, childhood memories and the ever-changing landscape and its histories. A poignant and intimate record, where everything seems to harmonize to perfection, wrought by heartfelt misery and aching beauty.

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• THA BV’S “Taking Pictures of Taking Pictures” [Kleine Untergrund Schallplatten / Shelflife Records]

The Augsburg-based Jangle-gaze 4-piece artisans unfold an immaculate, slightly off-kilter, yet undeniably unique pop-bent alchemy of perfect-pitched crisp and sharp chiming guitar tones, serpentine and sonorous rubbery basslines, ceaselessly busy, at times chugging motorik drumming and stripped down emotional vocals circling from wistful longing to hints of hope and joy, also grave depression, to coalesce a broad gamut of inspirations and more accentuated droning and dark inflexions, with a common ground of spontaneity and complex simplicity embedded within their sound, making for an impeccable and compelling listen, shifting seamlessly while constructing a flowing cohesion

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• SHOPFIRES “Shopfires” LP [Subjungle]

A heady distillation of Flying Nun and Sarah Records glimmers, Shopfire is the main project, not to be underestimated by his most recent side endeavour Neuclouds, from the prolific Leicester, UK-based bedroom pop musician, singer & songwriter Neil Hill who has piercingly caressed our eardrum with two albums, a third one will appear sometime in the new year, deftly built on an articulated echoing and shimmering atmospheric fretwork of circular jangle guitar arpeggios, wrapped in a gauzy glaze of wistful glowing keys and a lingering stirring sense of calm melancholy. Airy tactile crystalline tinkling melodies glide the ether through reverberating hypnotic twists and turns, underlied by warm bass pulses and lively rhythms, gently sprawling over hazily sad and worried vocals wondering how a loved one feels amid a cinematic array of suggestive spoken word clips. Nostalgic immersive guitar-driven narratives of refined introspection and sober arrangements, orchestrated with rare grace and elegance to indulge and soothe our senses.

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• PHANTOM HANDSHAKES  “Sirens at Golden Hour” LP [Start-Track]

Fine purveyors of a sinuous and immersive sound, NYC based Federica Tassano & Matt Sklar are tirelessly leaned to explore and perfect sleek melodic sensibilities, imbued with a strong emotional depth, nonetheless ready to escape an excessively predictable path, constantly weaving evocative facets of sonic imagery in which breezy, laidback Dream-Pop fantasies and subtle hazy Shoegaze blankets are ably blended and dotted with embroideries of gleaming jangle trails and lush keyboard trims, to support increasingly confidential vocals that caress and rise into soft piercing cries, while generating blurred epiphanies and subliminal desires into a suspended realm between dream and reality.

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• HEALEES “Coin de l’​œ​il” LP [Hidden Bay Records / Safe Suburban Home / Indie or Die]

International Paris denizens hailing from the US, Sweden, Belgium and France, finally get to their eagerly anticipated, in the true sense of the word, debut album with a steadily refined, heady and atmospheric textural sound, blending effect-laden, cathartic reverb-kissed, Shoegaze chord progressions with insistent bittersweet jangly tones. Energizing and intense, as it is dreamy and reflective layering a chromatic sprawl of swirling droning, distorted riffs that bloom and seethe over repetitive flows, scraped at the edge by obsessive sharp ringing trails, bending and expanding in glowing flourishings over aching layered dual vocals of mournful and restless regret, delving into stories of isolation, illness, illicit crushes, and heavy drugs. ‘Jangle-gaze’, ‘power pop-gaze’, whatever, it’s absolutely mesmerizing.

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• MT. MISERY “Love In Mind” LP [Prefect Records]

North of England foursome Mt. Misery, led by multi-instrumentalist Andrew Smith, return with the second album refining and making even more harmonically immaculate, shining and polychromatic their mesmerizing sun-kissed indie pop realms deftly depicted in their acclaimed 2021 debut “Once Home, No Longer.” The band casts Teenage Fan Club/The Chills’ languid crystalline allure, hinged on pleasantly bittersweet twinkly guitar melodies, infused with soft distortions and soothing iridescent electricity tinted with 60s West Coast hooks and brimming with balmy, nostalgic and emotional vocals, riding a roller coaster of soaring and gloomy feelings, with layers of uplifting back-up support, to reflect on love, daydreams, disconnection, and change through a lens of vulnerability.

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• YEA MING & THE RUMOURS “I Can t Have It All” LP [Dandy Boy Records]

Inspired by quiet sheer 90s trails of Yo La Tengo, Camera Obscura and the most airy Pavement, Bay Area singer-songwriter Yea-Ming Chen churns out a deftly crafted colorful brew of delicious plaintive indie pop tunes with languid folk caresses laced with delicate bittersweetness and airy heartfelt harmonic charm. Wondrously unfurling swaying slow-slung country-tinged balladry, stirring intimate elegies, and peppy catchy dreamy affairs, layered with bright guitars, poignant, twangy pedal steel resonance, tinkly sad piano keys and trembling organ washes, to paint spells of profound emotional vibrancy and melancholic dead-end escapism. A thought-provoking, yet breezy and loose collection swept in sad memories and intimate introspections stirs the soul with pain and regret, not from the earnest, pleasing vocals, albeit full of angst and wistfulness, but from the cruel world of pretense that extinguishes life at every turn.

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• FIR CONE CHILDREN “Jig of Glee” LP [Blackjack Illuminist Records]

Berlin-based storyteller Leonard Donat uses FCC, one of his several aliases, to deliver hissing, buzzing and impulsive rocking music, ‘fusing elements of Shoegaze, Punk, Noise Pop and Alternative Rock’, self-dubbed as ‘Dream-Punk’. The songs contain a vibrant rambunctiousness mirrored by layers of high-energy piercing vocals to capture the joy and whimsicality of Donat’s 9 and 11-year-old girls, whose wide eyes are the ones through which the album is inspired. You can expect a lot of hyperactive pattering drums overcast by flurries and tangles of distorted and sparkling guitar melodies from which backup vocal ‘characters’ peek through to add extra smiles. The stories told are many and cover topics such as an attic detective agency, the importance of stuffed animals, and a democratic bedroom election, to name a few. But the golden thread that ties them all together is the one that stirs the naïve innocence, vivid imagination, and endless hope in our hearts.

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• CAPITOL “Sounds Like a Place” LP [Meritorio Records]

Perhaps the most unsung band on the roster of the brilliant Spanish label, somehow difficult to pigeon-holed, seamlessly coasting genres and decades without wearing clear influences on their sleeves, the Ontario Indie five-piece outfit plays with lights and shadows, ‘warm highs and dreary lows’ as they suggest, through an intriguing emotive off-kilter songwriting rooted on an atmospheric textured shoegaze backbone, streaked by scrappy and scratchy Indie Rock stylings, with a dash of New Wave sheens. Imbued with a creeping intoxicating sense of shady nostalgia, the Canadian group draws a wide sweep of atmospheres and moods with vibrant mercurial sparkling swoops, alternating with ghostly droning and simmering contemplative parts. On the industrial, electric humming background of Capitol’s hometown of Hamilton, the album deals with an introspective coming-of-age tale about self-discovery and reality acceptance, delivered through moody vocals that shift between cold blurry disconnection and warm vulnerable angst and fear, mirrored by flashes of light bursting forth, surging atop dramatic and epic swells of guitars, urgent drumming and glowing synth swirls, to slip in resonant and poignant moments of pulling back, hanging in reflective lacerating wallows. The quartet gives us some of the most emotional and heartfelt indie rock albums of recent times, it would be a pity to let it slip away.

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• GOODBYE WUDAOKOU “Mirror Skies” [Self Released]

Born out of lo-fi home recordings from 2021 to 2024, the Manchester-based composer and musician Mat Mills‘ debut album, under the Goodbye Wudaokou moniker, delivers an intricate and mercurial mixture of fuzz-dusted US Indie Rock and shimmery Shoegaze, studded with moody Wave/Post-punk, jangly riffs and textural electronic atmospherics, inter alia, our man also operates his solo IDM project Irkya. The British artist shows fresh and personal songwriting coupled with the ability to embrace multiple leanings, in balanced combinations and constant evolution, without ever repeating himself and retaining his own stylistic identity. At times steered by intriguing shuffling, broken electronic drum patterns, a brilliant shape-shifting guitar work, from sparkling arpeggios to wailing leads and reverbed noisy distortions, provide color and character to Mills’ strong pop sensibilities, swaying seamlessly from languid, laidback moments to the more upbeat and jittery ones, while heartfelt vulnerable vocals of wistful joy and doom-laden angst, long and ache about seeing ourselves reflected in our children, hard times, lost love and the beauty and danger of nostalgia.

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• MO DOTTI “Opaque” LP [Self Released]

Los Angeles cat lovers jangle-gazers foursome Mo Dotti mold and sublime in a painstakingly unique fashion the bygone British Guitar Sound from the early ’90s into a tactile, vivid and mesmerizing textural experience, to spark ears and imagination. A constantly vibrant pulsing bedrock of loose, shuffling drumming and humming basslines form the rhythmical glue to fuel ten songs packed with ceaseless swirling and teeming waves of distorted guitars that seethe, writhe, swell and twist alongside eternally sadness-ridden vocals, wrapping around each other in a mesmerizing magic unison. An inebriating, bubbly, crystalline aural wonder that wanders and washes freely over every cell of your senses, transporting you into an immaculate ecstatic dimension.

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• URAL MOUNTAINS “Dead Oceans” LP [No Me Escucho Records]

Considered as his more personal and deeply felt, the fourth homespun album from the Buenos Aires-based DIY Shoegaze solo project of France-born musician and composer Cyril Degilles, besides being graced with one of the most captivating songs of the year, “Gust (feat. Sharko)”, is also possibly his most cohesive, variegated and accomplished so far. Built at first on the grief and sorrow from losing someone dear, to shift to the uplifting euphoria of the birth of a daughter, the songs float around lush, chorus-filled sparkling guitar tones, weaving reflective, sometimes languid and dreamlike moods, as well as igniting urgent reverbed wall-of-sound jolts and agonising jangling surges, dragging in their vibrant painful and melancholic trail multi-textural vocals, creating ghostly layers of heartfelt emotions, to finally embrace the string-stirred harmony lulled by glittering lullabies of bliss.

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• MEYVERLIN  “Therefore” [Too Good To Be True]

The French indie band, made up of buddies Thierry Haliniak, the mastermind of My Raining Stars, together with Philippe Lavergne with the addition this time of Rodolphe Vassails, these latter both ex-members of early 90s pop group Freluquets, of which is already in pre-sale the remastered reissue of their 1990 debut “La débauche” is expected for the first cries of the new year, continue in the second album their dedicated exploration of the British pop of yore, commented as usual by the sharp lyrics of Gilles Ramey. Embracing, as announced by the Euro disco-style 7″ single “Casanova,” the catchy 90s English electronic strains with a close eye on the dance floor pulled from New Order and all its side projects, Electronic in particular, as well scattered with nods to The Beloved, the most synthy The Wake, Duran Duran, and Pet Shop Boys. A record that feasts us with a meticulously crafted sunshiney daydream of bright melodies and infectious hooks, bouncing on groovy rhythmic vibes, crisp percussions, springy bass tones, glittering swirling keyboards, and eternally wistful squiggly jangling guitar melodies, and longing vocals swinging between melancholy and euphoria. It’s the perfect soundtrack to the summer nostalgia always lingering in our minds, that we have enjoyed here and there, wishing it lasted forever.

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• FUTURE NOSTALGIA Imaginary Conversations” LP [Kraakeslottet Platekompagni]

Oslo-based five-pieces reveal themselves to be worthy art students in the class of late-80s/early-90s atmospheric shoegazing dreamscapes of illustrious professors such as Slowdive, early Ride, as well as Cocteau Twins and AR Kane, yet elaborated with the right amount of flair and insight. Floating deep and vast on lush layers of heavily reverbed, shape-shifting, at times fuzzed-out, distorted guitars, crested with jangling ripplings, and shiny stellar slivers, stirred by sinuous warm basslines and shuffling drums, to shed hypnotic, dazzling melodies, reflecting in the mirror-like otherworldly emotional reverie from wistful skyward female vocals. The Norwegian unit finely tunes ambient and emotive elements towards the furthest edge of sophisticated Dreampop bliss.

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• MINERS “A Healthy Future On Earth” [Kitty Records / Flesh & Bone Records]

Since the first half of the 2010s, Wollongong-based alternative rockers Miners handled noise and melody, tension and release through an expansive and multifaceted swathe of leanings, whilst rooted in 90s Shoegaze, melding elements of Slacker, Emo, Country, Indie Rock and found sounds, all peppered with a distinctive yet elusive pop sensibility. The Aussie foursome brings forth both propulsive and reflective, dense sharpened guitar textures, stuffed with feedback and distortion, that thread together in abrasive fuzzed-out blankets, layered with stretched plaintive melodies, and emotional vocals, swaying in a liminal haze between angst and gloom, interspersed by reflective, vaguely psychedelic, shimmery atmospherics, folksy-tinged sad strummed parts, and quite-loud sparkling (emo-)tive catharsis, making for a heady and invigorating guitar-laden sonic experience.

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