Tag: shogeaze

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Glixen Shares Churning and Enveloping “all tied up”

Phoenix-based shoegazers Glixen — Aislinn Ritchie (vocals), 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 alongside bands like Narrow Head, Cowgirl Clue, MSPaint, Hotline TNT, and They’re Gutting A Body of Water. 

Glixen’s debut EP She Only Said was released in the summer of 2023 through Julia’s War Recordings. The EP 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. 

Building upon a growing profile, the Phoenix-based shoegazers’ highly-anticiapted Sonny DiPerri-produced sophomore EP quiet pleasures is slated for a February 21, 2025 release digitally through AWAL and on vinyl through Wichita Recordings. The EP will feature previously release singles “sick silent” and three singles I wrote about on this site:

  • “foreversoon,” a woozy bit of shoegaze built around fuzzy and melodic power chord-driven guitars, thunderous drumming and Ritchie’s tender and ethereal falsetto paired with enormous hooks and choruses. “foreverspoon” sees 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. “‘foreversoon’ represents blissful moments of new love and intimacy,” Glixen’s Aislinn Ritchie explains. “The song harnesses melancholy chords, layered with fuzzy red melodies and gliding guitars that pull you in deeper. I wanted my lyrics to feel like a conversation that expresses my infatuation and sensuality. Time is relentless and memories are fleeting, this song encapsulates those emotions forever.”

  • “lust” is a woozy track that sees the band continuing to explore a heavier sound — but this time channeling 90s grunge and nu-metal with fuzz and distorted pedaled power chords, down-tuned bass and blissed out rhythms. Ritchie’s yearning vocal ethereally floating over the brooding and muscular arrangement. “lust” is about the yearning and wanting of somebody and the rush that that person makes you feel,” Glixen’s Aislinn Ritchie explains. “It is a feeling that is shallow, yet it feels intense and passionate but only for a moment. We wanted to take the direction of our sound to a heavier place. I wanted the weight of the sound to crush me.”

  • “lick the star,” which begins 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, thunderous drumming paired with Ritchie’s ethereal yet plaintive delivery before ending with bursts of feedback. 

Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site, you might recall that last year was a busy year for the rising Phoenix-based shoegazers: They played SXSW and Treefort Festval. They’ve also had opening slots for acts like Interpol, DIIV, Nothing., Tanukichan, Turnover, Glare, Glitterer, Softcult and Fish Narc among others. 

Building upon the rising momentum surrounding the band, 2025 looks to potentially be a breakthrough year: Along with the forthcoming release of their sophomore EP, the band will be embarking on their first North American headlining tour throughout February and March with openers Suzy Clue and she’s green. The tour will include a March 15, 2024 stop at Baby’s All Right and their Coachella debut in April. Check out the rest of the tour dates below.

The newest JOVM mainstays’ latest single “all tied up” is features churning and stormy guitars, pummeling drumming around Ritchie’s pleading delivery. “all tied up” showcases the band’s uncanny knack for crafting deeply earnest material with rousingly anthemic hooks and chorus that sounds indebted to classic shoegaze — but with a subtly modern sensibility.

“‘all tied up’ is about feeling completely consumed by someone,” says Ritchie. “We definitely wanted the song to feel enveloping. There’s a subtle tension that builds throughout with a push and pull between the guitars and vocals. The song hits hard with its emotional depth, yet breathes with a playful melody.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays The KVB Offers a Glimpse Into Our Dystopian Future

Currently based out of Manchester, UK, the acclaimed shoegazers and JOVM mainstay outfit The KVB initially started in 2010 as the solo recording project of founder, singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Nicholas Wood. Wood released a series of limited cassette an vinyl releases as a solo recording project; but by 2011, vocalist, keyboardist and visual artist Kat Day joined the project.

In the decade since Day joined the project, The KVB have released several critically applauded albums and EPs through a number of different labels before signing to Geoff Barrow‘s Invada Records,who released 2018’s Only Now Forever. Interestingly, each of the duo’s acclaimed releases saw them crafting a sound simultaneously inspired by The Jesus and Mary Chain and Cabaret Voltaire; however, with each subsequent effort, the band has managed to streamline their sound.

Through extensive touring across the European Union, the UK, China, Russia and Japan, the duo have amassed a devoted fanbase globally. Now, as you may recall during the pandemic, Day and Wood relocated from Berlin to Manchester to work on their sixth album, the Andy Savors-produced Unity. Slated for a November 26, 2021 release through Invada Records, the duo’s sixth album will reportedly represent a new and exciting development in their sonic development: Through the album’s ten songs, the duo pull together their trademark components, radiant guitars, textured synths and an near for a moody, brooding melody paired with a renewed dynamism.

Interestingly, the initial writing sessions for their forthcoming album took place in Spain during early 2019, where the duo found influence from the “half built luxury villas, still unfinished from the crash in 2008. There was something eerie and beautiful about the desolate landscapes and concrete in the sunshine,” the band says in press notes. While their sound and approach has always been informed by what seems like our inevitable dystopian future, there is also more of a rapturous release to the material. Thematically, the album combines double meanings and there’s a sleight of hand present.

Earlier this year, I wrote about “World on Fire,” a single that found the duo continuing to refine their sound: Starting with burst of drum machine, the song was centered around buzzing and slashing power chords, shimmering and arpeggiated synths, a relentless motorik groove and a euphoric hook paired with the duo’s breathy boy-girl harmonies. Sonically, the track — to my ears, at least — found the duo pushing the boundaries of shoegaze in a similar fashion to Lightfoils, BLACKSTONE RNGRS and others while giving their sound a gauzy, New Order-like sheen. 

“Unité,” Unity‘s latest single may arguably be their most dance floor friendly track of their growing catalog: Centered around thumping beats, shimmering synth arpeggios, and a relentlessly hypnotic, motorik groove paired with Kat Day’s ethereal deadpan delivery, “Unité” sounds as though it could have easily been part of the Trans Europe Express or Man Machine sessions. The duo explains that the new single is “a homage to our time living in Berlin, with the pounding kick drum and grinding electronics.” Te song is a perfect example of the Manchester-based duo meshing dark and light sensibilities in a seamless fashion: while being a euphoric club banger, the song references urbanization and its dystopian potential.

The recently released video is set in a dystopian future, much like that in Minority Report, in which the viewer is inundated by advertisements and screens.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Chilean Shoegazers MAFF Release Eerie 120 Minutes MTV-like Visuals for Cinematic “Act 2”

Currently comprised of childhood friends and founding members Richard Gómez (vocals, bass and guitar) and Nicolás “Nek” Colombres (drums), along with the band’s newest members, Valentina Cardenas (bass) and Martin Colombres (guitar), the Santiago, Chile-based shoegazer act MAFF formed back in 2012 but interestingly enough the band can trace its origins to Gómez and Colombres collaborating in a number of local punk bands before starting their latest project, which is largely influenced by The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Pixies, RIDE, Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine. Now, if you had been frequenting this site a few years ago, you may recall that the Chilean shoegazers’ self-titled debut received attention both nationally and internationally among musicians, critics and fans for material that thematically explored innocence, mysticism, love, loss, freedom and timelessness among other things.

Since the release of their full-length debut, the acclaimed Colombian shoegazers went on a lengthy hiatus in which Gomez fathered a daughter, Augusta, who wound up inspiring their soon-to-be released EP Melaniña, an effort that derives it’s name from an amalgamation of the word melanin, chosen because Augusta Gomez is slightly albino with the Spanish word for little girl, niña. The album artwork, which was created by the band’s Nicolas Colombres, features an image of little Augusta, who witnessed the entire creative process of the EP.  “During our break between albums, I learned to be a father and learned to play the guitar. I started to write music surrounded by new feelings in my life,” Ricardo Gomez says in press notes. “It is always fascinating to keep learning new things, and I was fortunate to have these two moment’s crash together in the same period of my life. I locked myself in my home studio and started to write music”. “She’s been my source of inspiration,” Gomez continues. “This is my gift to her.”
Melaniña’s latest single “Act 2” was written and conceived as a sequel to “Act 1” off the band’s self-titled album, and as a result the incredibly cinematic instrumental track features some impressive guitar pyrotechnics, with guitars played through effects pedals paired with a propulsive rhythm section — with an expansive yet dreamy vibe familiar to classic shoegaze that also nods at Finelines-era My Vitriol and Collapse Under the Empire.
Directed by Tim Busko, the recently video continues the band’s ongoing collaboration with the Pennsylvania-based director and filmmaker, and much like its predecessor, the black and white video is comprised of shaky, handheld images of household items — radios, teacups, breakfast food, household plants, model planes, kids playing and natural phenomenon with a creepy yet hallucinogenic feel.