Shoegaze and Dream Pop tend to go hand in hand. You could argue that they're basically the same thing. Anyway, I decided to dedicate this post to some of the best modern Shoegaze and Dream Pop albums from underground acts that most people likely aren't aware of.
Everyone knows The Cocteau Twins, My Bloody Valentine, The Jesus & Mary Chain, Slowdive, Ride, Swervedriver, Lush, etc... and for good reason. They're the original Shoegaze/Dream Pop bands that created and launched the wonderful genre, and they're all incredible bands that you should definitely check out, if you haven't already...
This is just a list of ten of my personal favourite underground modern Shoegaze/Dream Pop albums (in no particular order) that all seem to exist on the fringes (or completely outside) the popular circles of all things noisy and beautiful.
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Be Forest - Knocturne (2019)
This is a dark psychadelic post-punk album from Italian band Be Forest. It's stark, hazy, raw and mesmerizing. Ethereal vocals, heavily-effected guitars, haunting basslines and thundering drums create these dark swirling vaporous atmospheres that not only captivate you - they completely swallow you up. Sick album.
Stream/Download : https://wwnbb.bandcamp.com/album/wwnbb-099-knocturne
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Blankenberge - Everything (2021)
Blankenberge are a fuzzy shoegazey post-rock band from St.Petersburg, Russia. Their sound is somehow both soft and noisy at the same time - beautiful serene vocals drifting in the midst of a dreamy haze of melodic reverb-drenched noise. Some songs are slow and brooding, others are delivered with a faster punk rock energy. Overall, this is a wonderful shoegaze album to lose yourself in.
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Vapour Night - Snow Fled (2015)
Vapour Night is a dark noisy pop project from a small island in the north of Scotland. 'Snow Fled' is a cold dark winter journey into the abyss. The songs are dark, melancholy and lonely... yet sweeping and beautiful.
There's lots of different musical elements going on in this album - dark post-punky guitars, bittersweet dream pop, ferocious noise rock, cold ambience, mournful electronica, sheer walls of glorious noise, and haunting vocals that cut beautifully through the mix.
Plus there's a rare guest vocal from the mysterious
Sun Devoured Earth who seems to have disappeared into obscurity after doing this.
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You'll Never Get To Heaven - Adorn (2014)
A wonderful album from Canadian dream-pop duo You'll Never Get To Heaven. Celestial, ethereal, airy and sweetly melodic music that seriously wouldn't be out of place in Twin Peaks.
This short album consists of only six songs - five originals and one beautiful rendition of Brian Eno's 'By This River'. Great album from a great band.
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Pia Fraus - Now You Know It Still Feels The Same (2021)
Pia Fraus are an awesome jangly noise pop band from Estonia. This album was recorded when they were only sixteen years old! Gorgeous female/male vocal harmonies backed with bright sparkly guitar pop instrumentation that shimmers and glows with a fresh dreaminess and buoyancy often lacking in a lot of shoegaze-influenced bands. This is the only album of theirs I've heard, but it's excellent, and I look forward to hearing the rest.
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Teen Daze - Glacier (2013)
Here's an electronic ambient pop album from Canadian solo artist/musician Teen Daze. Often referred to as ''chillwave'', Teen Daze uses layers of ethereal synthesized sounds to create these sweeping autumnal atmospheres that drift and swirl beautifully into your ears and through your brain. Listening to this album from start to finish feels like sleepwalking across a frozen expanse...in a good way.
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Sun Devoured Earth - Sounds of Desolation (2012)
Sun Devoured Earth is the solo project of Vadim Vasilyev - a Latvian bedroom artist/musician. He modestly describes his own music as ''a no budget take on shoegaze with other genres mixed in here and there''. Don't let that put you off. Yes, this music is very homemade and raw...but it sounds huge. He creates dark guitar-driven walls of noise and barely decipherable vocals over cheap programmed drum beats. The end result is bleak and depressive, yet beautiful.
Sun Devoured Earth gained quite a substantial cult following in the years that he was prolifically releasing music, but he seems to have disappeared into obscurity since his last album in 2013. I have no idea what he's doing these days.
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Jane Woodman - Teenage Red (2013)
Jane Woodman is a darkwave electronic artist from San Francisco. I originally discovered her through a guest vocal she did on the self-titled
Vapour Night album. She's a mega-talented musician that expertly mixes gothic post-punk with dark shoegazey electronica. The music is sometimes abstract, sometimes hooky and melodic... but always massive and cinematic sounding. This is her only full-length album to date. It's a long dark romantic journey through an ambiguous apocalyptic landscape.
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Hearts of Black Science - The Ghost You Left Behind (2007)
Hearts of Black Science are a dark electronic gothic-rock from Gothenburg, Sweden. This is their wonderful debut album. There's an airiness and weightlessness to their sound that conjures up images of softly falling snow on rooftops and lonely city streets at night. A beautiful combination of hooky electro-pop and dark broody gothic shoegaze. Excellent stuff.
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Crescendo - Unless (2016)
LA quintet Crescendo make bright nostalgic shoegaze delivered with a striking emotional intensity and upbeat punk energy. Their glorious pop melodies and jangly instrumentation make these songs so sparkly and crisp, and a pure joy to listen to. According to an article I read about them, one of their goals is to inspire listeners to dance and disappear from reality via space travel.
