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shoegaze

Tanukichan | Gizmo (2023)

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Tanukichan‘s debut Sundays is a low-key brilliant late-period shoegaze album that took the sound’s template and stripped it down to basics, enveloping the listener in a warm bath of sound without overwhelming them with effects and tricks. The focus was purely on Hannah Van Loon’s breezy, inward looking vocals, the pristine melodies, warped guitars that swam through the mix dub-style, and Chaz Bear’s subtle production. AllMusic
When the pandemic hit, Hannah van Loon adopted a dog named Gizmo, who became a much-needed companion while the Bay Area musician wrote her second album as Tanukichan.
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Gnoomes – Ax Ox

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As musicians across the world have watched the last decade systematically eating away at the infrastructure by which they pursue their art, triumphs against adversity have sometimes entered the realm of cliche. Yet few bands have undergone quite the travails that Perm, Russia’s Gnoomes have on the road to the release of their fourth release on Rocket Recordings, Ax Ox.
From such traumatic circumstances, with the band having overcome the stress of a pandemic, illness, depression and serious turmoil in their home country to reach a point where they can offer their music to the world, have arrived a kaleidoscopic and questing vision shot through with potent melancholia and strident optimism. Bandcamp
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The Telescopes – Experimental Health

Experimental Health

Experimental Health is the 14th album from The Telescopes and their third release on Weisskalt. The Telescopes are an all-embracing concern which began in 1987 – the only constant, being sole composer and instigator, Northumbrian born, Stephen Lawrie. The band’s line-up is in constant flux: there can be anywhere between 1 and 20 members on a recording. This album was created entirely independently by Lawrie in a remote cottage in West Yorkshire between January and May 2022.
Experimental Health is folk music made with broken toys and cheap synths – mostly Pocket Operators and miniature synths. Here are no guitars present on the album, most of the instrumentation…  Weisskalt records
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CEREMONY east coast – Lovesick

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Lovesick is John Fedowitz and Sandra Fedowitz darkest album yet. The new Ceremony East Coast album was written and recorded right after the two-piece band moved to NYC in the midst of the pandemic. Each of the 12 songs reflects the couple’s vulnerability and the urge to move forward. Lovesick is just as bass heavy as CEC’s last release CANDY. But just as life never stays the same, Ceremony East Coast embraces constant change and is not afraid of pushing their own limits. Lots of DX7 keyboard tracks, wave like dark post punk guitars and driving drums create a haunting sound experience. Listen to it with headphones, as you are cutting wood, being on an airplane… Bandcamp
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Hollie Kenniff | We All Have Places That We Miss (2023)

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Active as half of synth/dream pop duo Mint Julep since the 2000s, Hollie Kenniff began releasing solo material in 2019. Departing from the group’s hook-heavy, often danceable pop songs, her own music is lush, hazy, and a bit nostalgic, blending ambient synths and chiming guitar melodies with wordless, textural vocals… AllMusic
Kenniff’s second LP for Western Vinyl, We All Have Places That We Miss, is a chorus of cloudlike synths, seraphic strings, humming drones, and reverb drenched shoegaze guitars, all melding into an impressionistic story of remembrance, loss, family, and connection… Western Vinyl
The beauty of Kenniff’s music is that it is alive with emotion, and we can imprint our own images upon the pieces. Some feelings are universal though it might not be a home or a favourite place we have lost. We rated The Quiet Drift very highly – it was our second favourite album of 2021 – and it’s possible we felt so strongly about it then because it felt like being in the company of an old friend and that was what we needed at the time. It was a record that captured our imagination and touched our hearts… A Closer Listen

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