When the currents of shoegaze’s new wave washes over, if ever, you can imagine that an album like Hotline TNT’s Carousel will stand firm as one of its defining watershed moments. The Brooklyn band spearheaded by Will Anderson, formerly of grungy noise-punk outfit, Weed, has been hiding in plain sight over the last few years in a very DIY sense, self-releasing most of their singles, EPs, mixtapes, and putting out their debut LP (that should have already caught fire in the press years ago, if we’re being honest…) in 2021’s Nineteen In Love on the small, noisy indie label, Smoking Room. Alas, this moment in time has nudged Anderson and company to take advantage of it, signing with Third Man Records and going full-blown publicity mode for Carousel‘s release, resulting in an interesting come-lately realization within a broader listener spectrum of what Hotline TNT is capable of. For the day ones out there, Carousel isn’t so much a surprising level up from the wistful daydream romanticism singed in dense layers of white hot feedback and peculiarly bent guitars that its sensory effects, but in becoming more comfortable in stepping in front of fuzzed out, lo-fi production, we’re able to hear just how singular Anderson’s nebulous of noise-pop architecture is with a little just clarity recorded into its rock elixir. For that, Anderson’s hindsight of swan diving in and out love becomes all the more vivid in its blur, and the hooks burst loud more so than they pop in colors and formations unmatched by the scene’s sonic peers. Hotline TNT’s approach this corner of shoegaze-ambiguous songwriting as if they’ve known this day would arrive all along, but were merely picking their moment to finally show off their secrets in front of the whole world.

Highlights: “I Thought You’d Change”, “History Channel”, “Spot Me 100”

Hotline TNT’s Cartwheel is available now on Third Man Records.

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