The Predatory Wasp
This is the first single from A Place In My Memory Is All I Have To Claim, the new album by Australian atmospheric pop trio Hydroplane. On it, their first music after two decades plus of radio silence, Andrew Withycombe, Kerrie Bolton and Bart Cummings return to the gentle, close-quarters musical world they shared around the turn of the century.
https://hydroplaneband.bandcamp.com/album/a-place-in-my-memory-is-all-i-have-to-claim
Milan W.’s new album Leave Another Day feels like the culmination of 16 years weaving his way through projects like Crumar Young, Mittland Och Leo, Speedqueen, and Beach. Across 12 tracks, he distills dusky country, noir jazz, and indie-pop melancholia into a cohesive, dreamlike whole. His voice – weightless yet commanding – hovers in perfect suspension, threading through warm synth tones and intricate textures with the grace of an old soul navigating new terrain.
Now this was an unexpected delight. Says Liz Harris of the experience: “Making music was only an idea in my head when I first fell in love with Slowdive. What a strange dream all these years later to work with them. This track was such a lush pop hit to start, I just tried to boost and smear those gauzy highs and fields of dreamy texture, and Rachel’s ethereal vocals. Added a touch of tape, Wurlitzer, and space echo too. It was a pleasure to work on.”
Grouper’s celestial interpretation was accompanied by a Daniel Avery remix, which is also very good, but this is the one for me.
Reunion Island is Ashley Leer, Matt Leer, and Brad Loving, and that’s about as much information as I can find out them. Their second (I think) album Night Words came out last month, and it’s really very good; ambient techno one minute, shoegaze the next, and various things in between. Lost New is dubby, hypnotic techno, as soothing as it is stimulating.
Mica Levi makes their Hyperdub debut with the 12-minute slob air, an amalgamation of dream pop, post rock and shoegaze and among the most accessible, warm pieces of music they’ve ever produced. As you’d expect from someone renowned for soundtrack work it has a cinematic quality, but it also sounds contained and personal; a little nugget of time and place that calls to mind both Dean Blunt and John Murphy.
There’s surprisingly little online about Joanne Robertson and Dean Blunt’s new collaborative EP Backstage Ravers, save for a glowing RA review and an enthusiastic Reddit thread. Perhaps that’s expected from the famously publicity shy artists, but they really are making us work for it. Robertson takes the lead here with Blunt lurking in the distant background. Hazy, occasionally discordant and in a questionable stage of completion, the eight songs here are nevertheless completely beguiling.
Suntub is the second full length album from ML Buch, a double record of 15 pieces by the Danish composer and producer; a dreamy mix of shoegaze, experimental electronics and bedroom pop. I’ve only listened a couple of times so far, but so far it’s pretty much flawless, and up there with my favourite albums of the year. So many highlights, but album opener Pan over the hill should give you a good idea of what to expect.
Australian trio Hydroplane formed back in the mid-90s, initially to record a single seven-inch. They ended up releasing three albums, including a self-titled debut recently reissued by Efficient Space and garnering a cult fanbase that continues to grow to this day. Out last week, a new retrospective Selected Songs 1997-2003 compiles some of their finest recorded moments, including International Exiles which has all the hallmarks of their instantly recognisable sound; hushed, lazy drums, dreamy, deeply melancholic chords and Kerrie Bolton’s ethereally indifferent vocal.
https://hydroplaneband.bandcamp.com/album/selected-songs-1997-2003
I’m glad I hadn’t listened to any of the singles from Slowdive’s new album everything is alive ahead of its release last week, as although it does mean I’m a little behind the curve, these tracks are undoubtedly more impactful as part of the whole than separated out. prayer remembered is the one that really got me on the first listen; a dreamy, melodic, instrumental slice of shoegaze perfection.
If washed out guitars and dreamy vocals are rock aesthetics you enjoy, then behold! A lovely new album from Hull/Leeds shoegazers bdrmm. I didn’t hear their 2020 debut, but from what I’ve read I Don’ Know is a step up in terms of the scope of its production. Be Careful came out a single a month or so ago, but it’s new to me so may be to you as well.
The Predatory Wasp 