Following the brilliance of their self-titled debut album of January 2024, Brussels-based noise-pop act Capsuna are already back with another superb single. Repeat initiates the release with a Guided By Voices meets the jangly fuzz of Peel Dream Magazine, drifting along laconically upon Louise Crosby’s beautiful vocals before it crumbles into a glorious mess of ..read more

With Seven is Circular being his twelfth album since 2015 (in Discogs we trust!) and his fourth since June 2023 alone, it’s safe to say that Chattanooga, Tennessee-based Matt Addison’s Mythical Motors solo recording project is as prolific as it dedicated to a Guided By Voices and Superchunk fuzz/noise-pop core. What appeals most about indie ..read more

After a couple of albums away, Happy Accidents are back in their ‘natural home’ with Alcopop! Records to release their forthcoming Edit Undo album on 24 October 2024, from which the sheer beauty of this Infinite Possibilities / Dog Day single is released. Infinite Possibilities begins with a languid, jangly indie-pop, reminiscent of a Holy ..read more

Onira first tickled our aural senses in May 2022 with their three-track debut Demos EP (only Distractions makes the cut here). The dreamy, jangly dream pop of this Plain To See debut album has benefited from a rejuvenation of sound and careful production excellence. Luster joins the glorious opening triple salvo of Tree-lined, Meadow, and the title track, to combine a jangly dream-pop sweetness and bruised noise-pop with a subtle shoegaze core, with Grecia Chavez’s innocent, fey vocal sweetness, ensuring that the aesthetic of this foursome remains firmly rooted in the mid-2000s style of twee ..read more

There are approximately eleventy squillion bands with the name Alone Together on Spotify and a further hundrety bazillion tracks with the same name, so good luck in searching for this presumably Chinese act on the new Shanghai-based label, Tears Collection. (would this be an opportune time to point out there are sveral labels of the same name or have I already laboured the point?). However, thankfully, the above lack of originality is no indicator in relation to the quality of their music, as Today I’m Getting A Bob debut EP certainly deserves a wider audience than the search issues and lack ..read more

After the recent brilliance of the Diners Domino album, Portland’s Brenden Ramirez’s (aka Bory) is the latest act to benefit from Mo Troper’s seemingly unrelenting production quest to wrestle power-pop firmly into the hands of today’s youth. Nestled gently on Ramirez’s soft, inviting vocals that are so perfectly under-produced in the hands of Troper, tracks such as Five Course Meal, Our New Home, North Douglas, We Both Won, and Wreck drizzle the slightest of fuzz persuasions into soft Teenage Fanclub power-pop, which is then just about shaken enough to reveal a melancholy that is perfectly ac ..read more

After recent releases by Funeral Cake and The 1981, this Smile Too Much release cements the Dandy Boy Records cassette label as the summer’s most in-form and dynamic label. At its most precious, this succinctly named EP2 EP sees You Can’t Help Me, Wrong About Everything, and Get Used To It drizzle the beautifully delicate vocals of Maggie Aytac through feathery fuzz-pop and jangled guitar licks that just about win the fight for recognition amid the translucent ‘noise’ of it all. However, as stunning as the above sound is, this release truly excels when the energy is accentuated and charged wit ..read more

Another gorgeous double-track digital single from Christian Dam and his prolific The Age of Colored Lizards project is now available digitally through the Sotron Records label. Track 1 is June, which embarks on a journey of powerful fuzzy, noise-pop exploration that is beautifully addled by hushed male and female vocal harmonies that lay upon each other with deft ease, in the same manner as the recent Fine releases have encapsulated. The other track, I Will Never See Tomorrow, feels far more deliberate, sombre, and wistful. Here female vocals akin to the sultry introspection of Mazzy Starr ti ..read more

Now on its fourth album, the Shiny Times solo project of Kim Weldin would probably be considered her ‘primary gig’ if it was not for the sheer success of the more lucid, jangle gaze aesthetic of the Tape Waves she performs in with her husband, Jarod Weldin. Shiny Times always feels like a vehicle for this artist to get her ‘obtuse’ on, perhaps to cleanse herself from getting just a tad too mainstream for her liking. It’s no less beautiful than the Tapes Waves vibe, but such a sense of stunning derives from infinitely more untraditional musical contexts and structures. As such, Memory Dumpster ..read more

If the self titled EP (2019) and the debut Ennemi Commun album of 2021 were happy to revel in the bombast of the noise part of noise pop, then Wait Until The Flames Come Rushing In is positively gentile in comparison. However, Do not mistake the softer change in direction as a cause for concern  as this album still manages to retain the inimitable sense of cool that has always been so fundamental to their aesthetic. As such tracks best represented by Selkie, Bete, Intertie and Maze takes an almost Young Marble Giants sense of isolated, fractious rhythmic and joins the musical dots of such ..read more