2025 begins with it’s first eagerly anticipated, sparkling debut album Souls In Motion by Swansea/Manchester band Pastel.
Pastel are a 5-piece guitar band. Fronted by Droylsden (Manchester) cousins Jack Yates (singer) & James Yates (guitar) with Liam O’Shea (Bass), Joe Anderson (guitar) & Rhys Wheeler (drums).
Souls In Motion is the ten track album laced with all the shoegaze and madchester vibes, bringing a warm familiar feel to the listener, pure nostalgia. A nod to the all the greats of the past that are clearly a huge influence to the young band.
The album is full of relentless bass, glittering guitars, hazy and uplifting vocals that you can picture being sung along to, real crowd pleasers, anthemic. Each track better than the last.
Pastel have certainly delivered with this album, an exciting start to the year for the band!
Souls in Motion is out now on all streaming platforms.
Italian shoegaze band Mondaze has today released their second album ‘Linger‘ via Bronson Recordings.
A message on the wall reads, “We don’t want to return to normal because normal was the problem.” filled with disruptive alarms, isolating commutes, an increasingly demanding work schedule, and manufactured desires urging us to buy things we don’t need. Dull, unhealthy meals and a self-imposed detachment as we watch endless streaming content, sacrificing sleep until the brink of dawn. Then, the alarm rings again, perpetuating the cycle with heightened exhaustion and diminished concentration.
This is exactly what Mondaze touch on in their latest album ‘Linger’, a follow-up to their 2021 debut ‘Late Bloom’. “The album arose from a sense of alienation from a world devoid of contemplation,” the band explains. “A world where finding moments of stillness in everyday life has become rare’. Life has become an experience of watching from the sidelines, distracted and unaware of what’s right in front of us.
The album delves deep into themes of memory and loss, resistance and rebirth. It presents a dualism, balancing the delicate beauty of ethereal melodies with the intense power of a wall of sound. This back-and-forth builds and tears down emotional landscapes and mindscapes alike. If shoegaze stands for anything in the annals of indie music, it’s the sonic expression of a state of “uncomfortable numbness”—a form of escape from reality, hidden beneath layers of distorted guitars and distant vocals. It’s a sound that more effectively encapsulates the discomforts of ultramodern life than any statement could. While mainstream music moves towards hyper-produced pop and ever-grander spectacles, shoegaze has become the preferred voice for younger generations who feel adrift, with few points of reference.
In this context, Mondaze’s sound stands out with its originality. Their music is the result of a synthesis of various influences—from punk and hardcore to metal—forming a voice that uniquely captures the anxieties of today’s world.
Since forming in 2018, Mondaze have defined themselves as “heavy shoegaze,” taking inspiration from bands like genre-giants Swervedriver and Ride, but also contemporary bands that are pushing shoegaze through the limits like Nothing and Ringo Deathstarr. With ‘Linger’, they aim to amplify the melancholic tones of their frustration and rage. These sonic characteristics drove them to work with Chris Fullard (who’s collaborated with Idles and Boris) on mixing, and Maurizio Baggio (The Soft Moon, Boy Harsher) for mastering. The result is an album with roots, yet distinctly modern in its direction and sound with arrangements able to perfectly synthesize a modern approach to dreamy-eerie landscapes. Guitars in Linger are back as a centre for world-making as they foster sensations through music with refined overlaps where influences merge expressing modern sensibility.
“We often strive to act as rationally as possible, but inevitably end up feeling empty and numb,” the band reflects on the broader implications of their work, “This album is about contemplation,” they continue, “but there’s also an element of action, a kind of non-action that comes from the awareness gained through reflection.”
With ‘Linger’, Mondaze return with a sound that is as powerful as it is necessary in the times we live in. There’s a strength that stems from reflection and observation. Their music taps into the deep emotions of generations unwilling to return to the “normal” of the past.
Virgins have quickly become one of Irelands most promising rising bands, flying the flag for Irish shoegaze since their sold out and critically acclaimed debut EP ‘transmit a little heaven’in 2023. They return with a momentous new single ‘s o f t er’, already a live fan favourite. A shoegaze tour de force built around a looping lead riff and the ethereal yearning vocals of Rebecca Dow. Gargantuan walls of dense, beautiful reverbs and dreamy fuzz, transport the listener to a world of abstract beauty and bliss. Michael Smyth and David Sloan’s guitar complement each other perfectly, adding layers of shimmering choral accents, glide guitar trem-arm rhythms, reverse reverbs and lush jet plane phaser sounds. All driven by James Foy’s thunderous drums and anchored by gloriously fuzzed out bass of Brendy McCann. While basking in this audio bath, Rebeccas vocals offer a guide point to navigate through the hazy requiem.
The single accompanies the announcement of their eagerly anticipated debut album, ‘nothing hurt and everything was beautiful’ due out April 11th via Blowtorch Records on a pressing of 300 starburst vinyl. ‘nothing hurt and everything was beautiful’ finds the band exploring a wider sonic palette, seamlessly moving between the gaze-pop of ‘s l o w l y, l o n g’ and ‘d i s a p p e a r e r’, to the dance influenced ‘s o f t e r’ and to the heavy, expansive and ethereal ‘p a l e f i r e’ and ‘t e n d’. Their captivating sound doesn’t rely on recycling shoegaze tropes but brings a fresh and contemporary approach to the genre. The album follows the bands headline slot at GazeFest and the release of the hugely successful single ‘s l o w l y, l o n g’ last August.
Welsh shoegaze band Bôrealis released their debut single slowsand last week via a YouTube video, followed up by a Bandcamp release and then dropped this fantastic single on all streaming services worldwide.
The Anglesey trio features singer songwriter, bard, poet, artist and musician John Reynolds – vocals, bass (Entity, El Borracho), Jon Williams – guitar, vocals (Polygot, Spears) and Kerry Cavanagh on drums.
There’s just something beautiful about this, the combination of Reynolds poetic lyrics and singing over the shoegaze soundscapes and backing vocals of Williams. It’s pure magic. It just works and hooks you in from the start. I was instantly transported to that nostalgic feeling of listening to a My Bloody Valentine record except you know this is something completely new and different. There’s something that I want to keep listening to in the narrative of the lyrics. There is beauty, magic, creativity, poetry, love and light in this song. The light far out ways the dark.
Hey have you tried to hold my breath? The one thing you can’t touch Have you ever thought as much? Dance with me in the slowsand It’s golden in your hands
It really is such a beautiful ride!! I hope this band make a record together. They’re currently busy rehearsing for live shows from their base in Trearddur Bay, Isle of Anglesey and will be hitting the road in April.
Indie Revolution 