Category: Shoegaze

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: JOVM Mainstays Lucid Express Return with Lush, Brooding “Faux Sweetness”

Hong Kong-based shoegazers and JOVM mainstays Lucid Express will be releasing their long-awaited and highly-anticipated sophomore album Instant Comfort on February 20, 2026 through Kanine Records. 

Mixed by Kurt Feldman during marathon overnight, transpacific sessions on Discord, Instant Comfort reportedly captures the unsettling stillness of the nighttime hours. The album’s material sonically sees the Hong Kong-based JOVM mainstays pairing ethereal melodies with towering walls of jangling guitars and hazy, swirling feedback while being more clear-eyed, complex and layered than anything they’ve released to date. 

The album will feature the previously released “Something Blue,” a woozy and uneasy tune, anchored around a classic grunge and shoegaze structure, and the album’s second and latest single “Faux Sweetness.” Arguably one of the more Cocteau Twins-like tunes they’ve written and released to date, “Faux Sweetness” opens with a droning theremin passage before bursting into a densely layered, subtly brooding soundscape in which each instrument is seamlessly interwoven into a lush and dreamy bed for Kim Ho’s ethereal cooing.

Lucid Express’ Kim Ho says, “on ‘Faux Sweetness’ we return to some of our earliest indie pop influences while also mixing in some of the darker sounds we’ve picked up over years of experimenting in our studio space. It kind of led us to make something that is both heavier and more delicate than anything we’d written up to that point.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Draag Shares Woozily Meditative “NSPS”

With the release of their full-length debut, 2023’s Dark Fire Heresy and last year’s Actually, the quiet is nice EP, Los Angeles-based shoegazers and JOVM mainstays Draag — Adrian Acosta (vocals, guitar), Jessica Huang (vocals, synths), Ray Montes (guitar), Nick Kelley (bass) and Nathan Najera (drums) — received attention nationally and elsewhere for boldly pushing the boundaries of shoegaze into new, wild directions. And adding to a growing profile, the JOVM mainstay outfit have toured with Wednesday, MSPAINT, Glitterer and They Are Gutting A Body Of Water.

Building upon growing momentum, the Los Angeles-based JOVM mainstays will start the new year with the Miracle Drug EP, which is slated for a January 23, 2026 through Oakland-based tastemaker label, Smoking Room. 

The EP will feature the previously released, EP title track “Miracle Drug,” a mind-bending blend of shoegaze, post-punk and nu-metal, and the EP’s second single “NSPS.” “NSPS” is meditative slow-burn, anchored around a woozy and lived-in sense of nostalgia, shame and heartache, from the perspective of a narrator, who has lived a messy life and attained a difficult, hard-won peace and constantly encounters elements of their past — in their present.

“I wrote NSPS on my 10 year sobriety anniversary. I’ve come very far in my sobriety journey and don’t struggle as much as I used to. Sometimes I miss my drunken days, but without needing to go back. On my 10 year sobrieversary, I spent a lot of time reflecting on past relationships and saw how many were taking advantage of me,” Draag’s Adrian Costa explains. “I remember the person I was back then, and I wanted approval so bad, even if it meant being abused by so called friends and partners. When I drive through the valley (818), I often drive through specific locations and landmarks in my life where abysmal and ridiculous events occurred during my drinking days. I still love this place and it’s still my place of comfort.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Mute Swan Teams Up with Sonoda on Intergalactic “Phantasms of the Living”

With the release of their debut EP, 2016’s Ultraviolet and their full-length debut, 2021’s Only Ever, Tucson-based shoegaze/dream pop outfit Mute Swan — currently, Mike Barnett (guitar/vocals), Prabjit Virdee (bass, vocals), and Gilbert Flores (drums) — quickly established a swirling, densely layered take on psych rock that some critics and others have compared to Of Montreal and Soft Bulletin-era Flaming Lips. 

2021’s Only Ever was released to praise from The FADER, Merry-Go-Round Magazine and several others, as well as airplay on KEXP.

Earlier this year, the band signed to Hit The North Records/Wooden Tooth Records, who will be releasing their long-awaited sophomore album Skin Slip on March 6, 2026. The album will feature a batch of material that will be posthumously released after the death of founding member Thomas Sloane, including the previously released “Hypnosis Tapes,” and “Cocteau Swan,” which featured Citrus Clouds‘ Stacie Huttleson.

The Tucson-based outfit begin 2026 with Skin Slip‘s third and latest single, “Phantasms of the Living,” featuring Sonoda. “Phantasms of the Living” is a dreamy, intergalactic tune anchored around the sort of dense layers of guitars that may remind some of Siamese Dream-era Smashing Pumpkins paired with razor sharp hooks.

“Several years ago I got into reading books about non-duality. The lyrics of this song were inspired by a British non-dualist named Tony Parsons but the title actually comes from a 19th century book about ghosts of people who are still alive,” Mute Swan’s Mike Barnett explains. “There’s a connection there but, anyway, we were very excited after writing this song together. This song is one of our favorites. And Lisa (Sonoda) singing on it was the absolute cherry on top.”

Directed by the band’s Mike Barnett, the accompanying video for “Phantasms of the Living” is a deliriously odd DIY effort that’s split between a house gathering watching an old movie “Phantasms of the Living,” followed by a ouija board that seemingly opens a portal into the murder and mayhem of the movie they were originally watching.

singer/songwriters by William Ruben Helms

Albums of the Year 2025

JOVM turns 16 this year. And for first handful of years, my Best of List was an annual tradition until about 2014 or so. Between 2014 and 2020, it became sporadic and then it stopped. I haven’t done one of these in several years. There was a part of me that wondered if it really mattered much. And then life happened. 

So here we are in 2026. And with the year starting in earnest, let’s check out my best of 2025. 

  1. Big Fish Fyra liter stoft
  2. Tan Cologne Unknown Beyond
  3. Moondaddy Dove Tapes
  4. Sessa Pequena Vertigem de Amor
  5. Preservation Brass & Preservation Hall Jazz Band For Fat Man
  6. Silk Daisys S/T
  7. The Circling Sun Orbits
  8. Gabriel da Rosa Cacofonia
  9. Yoo Doo Right, Population II & Nolan Potter Yoo II avec Nolan Potter
  10. bat zoo The Upward Bird EP
  11. Public Circuit Modern Church
  12. L’Eclair Cloud Drifter
  13. Gloin All of your anger is actually shame (and I bet that makes you angry)
  14. CIVIC Chrome Dipped
  15. Population II Maintenant Jamais
  16. White Birches A New Reign
  17. Anish Kumar and Hagop Tchaparian Kino EP
  18. Friendship Commanders BEAR 
  19. The Besnard Lakes The Besnard Lakes are the Ghost Nation
  20. SHOLTO The Sirens
  21. S.C.A.B. Somebody In New York Loves You!
  22. Pierpont & Hegeleson Of Time
  23. RORO and snapir Colors Left
  24. St. Panther Strange World 
  25. Nation of Language Dance Called Memory
  26. Quad90 S/T
  27. Slumbering Sun Starmony
  28. Tunde Adebimpe Thee Black Boltz 
  29. Quad90 S/T
  30. Die Spitz Something To Consume
  31. debdepan LOVERS & OTHERS EP

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The Joy of Violent Movement is a completely independent and completely D.I.Y. media outlet. Over the course of this site’s 15+ year history, I’ve used my fiercely independent stance to cover music with an eclectic and global perspective that a lot of other publications just don’t have — and will likely never have. 

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Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 64th Birthday, Robin Guthrie!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Cocteau Twins’ Robin Guthrie’s 64th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays Draag Shares Genre-Bending “Miracle Drug”

With the release of their full-length debut, 2023’s Dark Fire Heresy and last year’s Actually, the quiet is nice EP, Los Angeles-based shoegazers and JOVM mainstays Draag — Adrian Acosta (vocals, guitar), Jessica Huang (vocals, synths), Ray Montes (guitar), Nick Kelley (bass) and Nathan Najera (drums) — received nationally and elsewhere for boldly pushing the boundaries of shoegaze into new, wild directions. And adding to a growing profile, the JOVM mainstay outfit have toured with Wednesday, MSPAINT, Glitterer and are about to wrap up a run of dates with They Are Gutting A Body Of Water.

Building upon growing momentum, the Los Angeles-based JOVM mainstays will start the new year with the Miracle Drug EP, which is slated for a January 23, 2026 through Oakland-based tastemaker label, Smoking Room.

The EP’s first single, EP title track “Miracle Drug” is a mind-bending blend of shoegaze, post-punk and nu-metal that evokes the inner turmoil of someone, who’s suffering from something that they know others can’t see — or even really understand. But in the song’s dreamier moments, there’s a sense of awe and appreciation over the small things.

“Living with an autoimmune condition is an invisible daily fight. Some days you want a miracle drug to escape what feels like a prison in your body,” Draag’s Adrian Acosta says about the new single. “But you don’t take your health for granted. And you learn how to appreciate life and super simple moments deeply. I feel like it’s given me a sharp vision of what really matters.”

The accompanying video is heavily inspired by the aesthetic and feel 80s and 90s Public Access TV including footage of local performers in a shitty studio, the band performing the song in a studio, home footage of young kids in their first band, as well as a lengthy call-in segment with calls from deranged viewers.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Silk Daisys Shares A Shimmering Christmastime Original

Atlanta-based dream pop/post-punk duo Silk Daisys — James Abercrombie and romantic partner Karla Jean Davis — have been making music together for some time, but their Silk Daisys and Damon Moon co-produced debut will be their first, official release. Interestingly, the Silk Daisys name has been around even further, with Abercrombie using the name on Soundcloud for about a decade to upload random covers and the occasional original song. 

“We recorded our album over two weeks with Damon Moon (Bathe Alone, Sleepers Club) at this studio Standard Electric Recorders in Atlanta. Damon was awesome to work with,” the duo says. “We spent a ton of time just talking about music the three of us love and sharing songs back and forth. We’d name some obscure part of a song as a reference and he’d get it immediately, and dial in the tones perfectly. Damon also played drums and percussion on the album. The three of us produced it together, and it was all really collaborative and fun.”` 

The Atlanta-based duo’s full-length debut is slated for a Friday release, and will feature the previously released Halloween-themed “Haunted House,” a track that seemingly channels Pygmalion and Souvlaki-era Slowdive, and “honeymilk,” a contented sigh of a tune that’s one-part 90s shoegaze fuzz and one-part 60s bubble gum pop.

Just before the release of their self-titled debut, the Atlanta-based duo release a Christmas season original and standalone track, “it’s just like xmas,” an effortless blend of old-timey holiday tunes and Cocteau Twins, anchored around shimmering guitar and the timeless hope for a better, more peaceful world for all of us.

“I wrote this one on Christmas Day last year. There’s always a moment of calm in our house after the initial excitement of Christmas morning, and I find myself playing guitar or piano during those moments and thinking about the year we left behind and the year ahead,” the band’s James Abercrombie says. “I thought a lot about our kids, and I thought a lot about the kids who were currently living in countries that were being torn apart by war. The song ended up being a simple wish for peace, a calm all over the world like the ones I so often take for granted on Christmas afternoon.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 49th Birthday, Oliver Ackermann!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates A Place to Bury Strangers frontman Oliver Ackermann’s 49th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Lucid Express Shares Woozy “Something Blue”

Hong Kong-based shoegazers and JOVM mainstays Lucid Express will be releasing their long-awaited and highly-anticipated sophomore album Instant Comfort on February 20, 2026 through Kanine Records.

Mixed by Kurt Feldman during marathon overnight, transpacific sessions on Discord, Instant Comfort reportedly captures the unsettling stillness of the nighttime hours. The album’s material sonically sees the Hong Kong-based outfit pairing ethereal melodies with towering walls of jangling guitars and hazy, swirling feedback while being more clear-eyed, complex and layered than anything they’ve released to date.

Instant Comfort‘s first single “Something Blue” is anchored around a classic grunge and shoegaze song structure — shimmering and dreamily meditative soundscape-driven verses and stormy walls of churning and fuzzy power chords for the song’s enormous hooks and choruses. The song’s woozy and uneasy nature, helps to further emphasize the band’s Kim Ho’s ethereal delivery exploring the sense of creeping dead and melancholy that comes from uncertain relationships/situationships.

The accompanying video for “Something Blue” features the band in front of projections of footage submitted by fans and friends from across the globe.

Now, as you may know, since the release of 2021’s self-titled full-length debut, the band has amassed praise from fans and critics across the globe, toured internationally and made a run of the international festival circuit with stops at Slide Away and LEVITATION. They will return to North America next year for a sting of Stateside dates, including a return to play New Colossus Festival in March. More details on that to come.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Glixen Shares Stormy and Urgent “Medicine Bow”

Phoenix-based shoegazers and JOVM mainstays Glixen — founder Aislinn Ritchie (vocals), along with Esteban Santana (guitar), Keire Johnson (drums) and Sonia Garcia (bass) — was founded back in 2020 by the band’s Aislinn Ritchie, who then enlisted Santana, Johnson, and Garcia to complete the band’s lineup. Emerging from a scene of local DIY artists, the quartet’s unique sound and look set them apart from their counterparts and led to tours across the US with bands like Narrow Head, Cowgirl Clue, MSPaint, Hotline TNT, and They’re Gutting A Body of Water. 

Glixen’s debut EP 2023’s She Only Said saw the band adding themselves to a list of contemporary shoegaze outfits actively pushing the genre in a new direction — through a approach that incorporates ethereal pop vocals and shimmering guitars that are meant to guide you toward the feeling of true self-expression. 

The Phoenix-based quartet released their highly-anticiapted Sonny DiPerri-produced sophomore EP quiet pleasures earlier this year digitally through AWAL and on vinyl through Wichita Recordings. The EP featured the previously released single “sick silent” and four singles I wrote about on this site:

  • “foreversoon,” a track that saw the Phoenix-based outfit taking up a much heavier sound that seemingly channels Souvlaki-era Slowdive, Nowhere-era RIDE, and contemporaries like JOVM mainstays Blushing

  • “lust” is a woozy track that saw the band continuing to explore a heavier sound — but while channeling 90s grunge and nu-metal with fuzz and distorted pedaled power chords, down-tuned bass and blissed out rhythms

  • “lick the star,” which began with an eerily atmospheric sound bath-inspired introduction that sounds a bit like  Cocteau Twins and Slowdive, before quickly turning into a wall of sound of fuzzy and swirling guitar textures

  • “all tied up,” which showcased the shoegazer outfit’s uncanny knack for crafting deeply earnest material with rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses that manage to sound inspired by classic shoegaze but with a modern sensibility  

The JOVM mainstays supported their sophomore EP with stops across the global festival circuit, playing sets at Coachella, Reading and Leeds. They played a headlining Stateside tour with several sold-out shows. They hit the road with Turnover, Panchiko and Scowl — including their first UK and EU tour, supporting Turnover. And they’ll close out the year with a co-headlining tour with Glare across the Southwest and West Coast.

2026 will see the band returning to the global festival circuit with sets at Boston’s Something in The Way and Manchester, UK’s Outbreak. But in the meantime, their latest single, the standalone “Medicine Bow,” sees the band diving further into the harder hitting sound they developed on their sophomore EP: Vulnerably sung, introspective lyrics attempt to swim to the surface of a towering wall of distortion and fuzz-pedaled guitars and thunderous drumming within a classic, grunge-inspired song structure. The result may arguably be the JOVM mainstays must raw, yearning and immediate song to date.

“It’s a sense of urgency bound to the quiet yearning for self-comfort,” Glixen explains. “The song drifts between lucidity and a fever dream, where soft vulnerability meets slow-burning decay. The lead and rhythm guitars melt and unmeld in a hypnotic blur, mirroring the emotional push and pull at the heart of the track. With each refrain, “Medicine Bow” becomes a reflection of that internal ache to hold on while letting go — a sonic unraveling that feels intimate and disoriented.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Venice’s Glazyhaze Shares Breakneck “ROMEO”

Venice-based indie outfit Glazyhaze — Irene (vocal, guitar), Lorenzo (guitar), Francesco (drums, programming) and Vsevolod (bass, backing vocals) — quickly established a sound that draws from shoegaze, dream pop and alternative rock with the release of their full-length debut, 2023’s Just Fade Away.

Since the release of Just Fade Away, the band has toured across Europe and the UK, opening for the likes of Trentemøller, Hater, Film School and a lengthy list of others. Building up on a growing profile across Europe and the UK, the band released their Paolo Canaglia-produced sophomore album SONIC earlier this year.

Recorded between Northeast Italy and London, the Italian band’s sophomore album thematically explores the complexities of love through a journey of self-discovery and emotional contrasts. Sonically, the album sees the quartet embracing shoegaze, bedroom pop, post-punk and art rock influences. The band supported the album opening for Soft Cult on their European tour as well as a handful of dates with The Raveonettes, Slow Crush, Lucy Kruger and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. And adding to a growing profile, the band has received airplay on KEXP, Rai Radio 2, FM4 and BBC Radio 6’s Steve Lamacq.

Clocking in at a 2:31, SONIC’s latest single, “ROMEO” is a breakneck gallop of a tune anchored around swirling, reverb and distortion-drenched guitar textures, a propulsive rhythm section that seemingly channels 120 Minutes-era MTV-era alt rock. Much like the period that the song and the band channels, “ROMEO” is underpinned by subtle yet noticeable tension between anger, sweetness and nostalgia.

The new single captures the powerlessness that often comes with loving someone who can’t love themselves — and are unwilling and/or incapable of change. As the band explains, “ROMEO” is a song for those who hide behind stubborn pride, who would be more willing to destroy everything rather than show vulnerability; for those who seemingly live with the appearance of control but burn inside and won’t readily admit it. They add that the song is most importantly, a farewell to the illusion — or delusion — that you can save someone who doesn’t want to be saved.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Tucson’s Mute Swan Shares woozy “Hypnosis Tapes”

With the release of their debut EP, 2016’s Ultraviolet and their full-length debut, 2021’s Only Ever, Tucson-based shoegaze/dream pop outfit Mute Swan — currently, Mike Barnett (guitar/vocals), Prabjit Virdee (bass, vocals), and Gilbert Flores (drums) — quickly established a swirling, densely layered take on psych rock that some critics and others have compared to Of Montreal and Soft Bulletin-era Flaming Lips.

2021’s Only Ever was released to praise from The FADER, Merry-Go-Round Magazine and several others, as well as airplay on KEXP.

The band recently signed to Hit The North Records/Wooden Tooth Records, who released the Tucson-based outfit’s latest single “Hypnosis Tapes.” The new single is the first bit of new of material from the band since their debut album — and is part of a batch of material that will be posthumously released after the tragic death of founding member Thomas Sloane.

“Hypnosis Tapes” features Barnett’s breathy delivery ethereally floating over a woozy soundscape featuring glitchy and swelling electronics, fuzzy, acid-tinged guitars paired with relentlessly driving four-on-floor. While still drawing from shoegaze, “Hypnosis Tapes” may arguably be the most Brit Pop-leaning track of their growing catalog to date.

“We had only approved the final mix of this song weeks before when we lost our best friend and guitarist, Tom Sloane. It is the first of a collection of his last songs we felt especially determined to give a proper release into the world,” the band’s Mike Barnett says. “Displaying some of his best textural guitarwork, this song is about finding some kind of inner peace through the noise of chaotic times and endless mental chatter. There’s a meditation tape sampled at the end, as well as a vacuum cleaner in reverse at the beginning (an inside joke of ours).”

Directed by the band’s Mike Barnett, the accompanying video for “Hypnosis Tapes” features the band’s three surviving members hanging out in someone’s living room. Virdee and Flores are busy fiddling around while Barnett strums his guitar and sings. And it’s all set in trippy kaleidoscopic filters, which sees the members melt and morph into one another.

The new single and video comes on the heels of the Tucson-based band playing opening slots for Horse Jumper of Love, Wednesday, Tanukichan and Peel Dream Magazine, as well as a set at this year’s Levitation Festival. The band has big plans for next year, so be on the lookout.