shoegaze

Reno of BEKO Digital Single Label informed us a few months ago about their brilliant netlabel, but we’ve been slow to feature it. If you’re into shoegaze, psychedelic, twee pop, lo-fi noise pop etc. don’t sleep on them. BEKO releases a 2 piece single every Monday for free.

Silber Records with their “Drone love honesty sound” motto is one of them. Focusing on leftfield indie genres like slowcore, shoegaze and their bigger brother post-rock, they’ve become a go to label for everything that includes wall of sound in their 13 year history.

“The Knot” is the second effort by Maryland duo Wye Oak. Heard them before on a split and thought that they were your run-of-the-mill indie/folk crossover. Yet “The Knot” has much in store both in the songwriting department as well as the sound.

One of the emergent trends for contemporary music this year, – if we can get a glimpse while actually living inside it- is the apparent comeback of shoegazing aesthetic in indie music circles. Two artists today, Paneye and Vadadi both free download albums fusing shoegaze with other elements.

It’s always hard to match the forte of a great album and bands manage to do it on rare occasions as most of their ideas and creativity are exhausted in their first / second albums. Asobi Seksu’s second effort Citrus had received critical acclaim, and it’s hard to reach the same standards of its invincible first half. Thus I approached Hush with lower expectations despite the wonderful single “Me & Mary“.

Let’s start off the week with a five song indie rock / folk selection:
+Bon Iver +Dame Satan +Day Sleeper +The Uncomfortables +Wavves

Transcending his earlier more 4/4 minimal techno works this album has managed to fuse clicky electronic beats with ambient scapes, traces of shoegaze and melodies. The balance of these elements on Yo Recuerdo is outstanding with distorted guitars or warm reverby synth washes never scaring the casual listener while giving the serious listener a complex and emotive dimension to enjoy.