Psychedelic gazers The Stargazer Lilies returned in 2022 with a new studio album three years after their outstanding 2019 release, Occabot. The album was recorded over those few years in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania, in Austin, TX, and Central Florida. Cosmic Tidal Wave was one of my albums of the year and remains a firm favourite to this day. The band have teamed up with the good folks over […]
Last year I met an amazing new artist out of Tel Aviv, Israel, named Lital Hagayan. One year on and I’m proud to count her as a really good friend. I’ve played her previous singles ‘Eternity’ and ‘Like I Remember You’ on my Static Sounds Club radio show and feedback from the DKFM faithful was unanimous. Everyone wanted more. The great news is, after a turbulent year for Hagayan, she […]
LA-based multi-instrumentalist Danny Rincon is about to launch his debut album out to the world. Recording under the name Scrunchie, he is heavily influenced by the 90’s shoegaze sound as well as drawing inspiration from grunge and slowcore bands. He has been recording in esteemed company, namely renowned mixing engineer Sonny DiPerri who’s worked with My Bloody Valentine and Nine Inch Nails; and legendary mastering engineer Stephen Marcussen (The Smashing […]
The Euro shoegaze scene has been slowly becoming dominant in my listening habits. In particular France has been featuring big. The latest band to drop into my inbox with their musical delights are the Bordeaux-based trio, Cosmopaark. The name is a contraction of cosmonaut and a nod to Gus Van Sant’s movie Paranoid Park, a film which has a nineties aesthetic. The nineties are a big touchpoint for the band […]
Some bands entertain, some thrill and excite but others completely transport you out of your life into strange fantastical worlds. This is my experience of The Stargazer Lilies. They remain a band I am in awe of and now a new album is nearly upon us. A new opportunity to explore the outer reaches of my imagination. Cosmic Tidal Wave is out this Frida,y so I took the opportunity to […]
Back in August last year, Ireland's Virgins burst into our consciousness with their epic debut single ‘Vows’. It was an instant hit with me, the perfect blend of dreamy rock and head-on gaze. The band is formed around the main man Michael Smyth with David Sloan on guitar, James Foy on drums, Rebecca Dow on vocals and Brendy McCann of Hand Models on bass. Since the release of ‘Vows’, the […]
Scouting about on the internet searching for tracks to play on my monthly Static Sounds Club show I happened across something pretty unique. When I hit play on this album I was transported across the globe and into the world created by Shrenik Ganatra, Liam Christian and drummer Steve Carlin. Together they are, Minaxi. If you asked the band to describe their sound this is what they’d say “Minaxi's sound […]
From scorching global temperatures to a loss of bodily autonomy for over 50% of the American population, it seems the wrong time to celebrate groundbreaking new music ("Don't you know? The world is breaking apart!"). And that's true, so far as it goes. But as the world has been breaking apart for nearly a decade now (at least), we welcome those who've only just now caught up. Meanwhile, we'll do […]
There are some songs you vividly remember hearing for the first time. They sear themselves into your memory, like a firework in your head. Such as it was for me the first time I heard Chicago trio Horsegirl. It was one day in February last year. Scrolling through my Facebook feed there popped up a post from UK based shoegaze label Sonic Cathedral. Generally, when I see a post from […]
