There is a lot of great new music being released these days, and not enough time in the world for one person to write about it all at length. Instead of falling into the trappings of messy playlists or content drops with no storytelling narratives or cohesion behind them, +rcmndedlisten is taking the time to curate a selection of recently released albums and EPs you should listen to that have been on regular rotation on this end over the past days, weeks, or even months for that matter.
The latest edition explores the exciting beyond of modern shoegaze with the latest by A Country Western, Aluminum, Shady Bug, and They Are Gutting A Body of Water.
A Country Western – Audition Tape [Crafted Sounds]
A Country Western were among the first bands of the current wave to step outside the lines of glaring ’90s shoegaze reverence by working in alternative alt-rock influences into their sound with their 2024 breakthrough effort, Life on the Lawn. Where they’re heading on its follow-up and fourth album, Audition Tape, again throws down the gauntlet of how dynamic feedack-drenched guitar rock can be simply by testing its energy levels in varying spacial settings.
These pages would wager to say it’s their most satisfyingly demanding listen to date as the four-piece led by Derek Henegemihle, Garrett Miades, Erik Hilbert, and Paris Parker explore bleak topical timeline themes like the gallows of capitalism, the decaying effect of being chronically online, environment death and existential inquiries on mortality through a multitude of decibels.
They can crush ecstatically (the early entrance of “Audition”, the stains of “Blood Eagle”, and sobering rage within “No Alcohol”) or wander through the world at the pace of someone who has had a hearty helping of slowcore (“Not Far Enough)” and a celestial pop daze in their listening diet (“I Found”.) If their goal was to get the part of shoegazing indie rockers who have made the best use of patience in revealing the nuances in their art, Audition Tape does the trick, and many of them at that.
Highlights: “Blood Eagle”, “I Found”, “No Alcohol”
Aluminum – Iconoclast HaHa [Felte Records]
At the time of releasing their 2024 breakthrough debut, Full Beat, it sounded like Aluminum had a really good handle on where the shape of modern shoegaze was going. Equal parts technicolor noise-pop as it was aerodynamically lushed in careening, feedback-drenched guitars, the Oakland band arrived onto the scene as a collective of artists who’d spent enough time in it individually by then to funnel their diverse perspective into one current. In the time since, O.G. member Chris Natividad of Marbled Eye and Blue Zero has left in a deal that has sent his Blue Zero bandmate Rick Altieri behind the kit, and with it comes a vibe shift in progressive direction as well with Aluminum’s sophomore follow-up, Iconoclast HaHa.
The most intriguing discovery behind the listen is in how the four-piece peel back some of those sugar-coated textures of their previous sound for noisier, punk-forward revelations. It puts a combustible throttle behind highlight opener “Give Me A Reason” alongside the early single “Killing Time” that matches vocalists Marc Leyda and Ryann Gonsalves’ contextual undertones on the bleakly political and consumerist. Aluminum aren’t escaping the shoegaze allegations entirely here, however, though they’re remolding them amorphously again in psychedelic daze, be it in the hum of “Distant Noise” and the lite blinking rave pulsations of “An Opportunist” that again bring the four-piece a mile out from where the scene stands today.
Highlights: “Killing Time”, “Distant Noise”, “An Opportunist”
Shady Bug – I wanted to be there [Julia’s War / Bee Side Cassettes]
Listening to Shady Bug is like dunking your head into a deep pool of voids, but it sure is noisy down there nevertheless. Following their 2023 breakthrough EP, What’s The Use?, the St. Louis band — now evened out into a four-piece with the addition of Ingram Tolishing joining frontwoman and guitarist Hannah Rainey, guitarist Ripple, and bassist Chris Chartrand on drums — has made their way over to shoegazing hotbed Julia’s War for its follow-up, I wanted to be there, and are expanding on the ways in which their uncanny kind of noise-pop cobbled together from pedals and loops can reverberate.
Rainey’s interior thoughts double as the perfect setting to do so, as she ruminates on everyday malaise, relationship statuses of all degree, and sitting alone with it all. She and the band’s collective energy bursts with every lightning bulb moment inside this cavernous world through, exploding filament and spark in asymmetrical spectacle. At their most luminous (“oh okay”, “worm in the storm”) Shady Bug bend light in dizzying, dazzling patterns. When Rainey and her ‘mates are sank into their own heads, it can either be an emotive recalibration in perspective (“i wanted to be there when it happened”, “basket”) or the blinding opposite (“seed”, “my night routine”.) Either way, you’re stuck in there with them.
Highlights: “oh okay,” “i wanted to be there when it happened”, “seed”
They Are Gutting A Body of Water – KOOL FAITH // LOOSIES II [ATO Records / Julia’s War]
It’s worth noting that most of the artists above have either collaborated with or are on the label ran by They Are Gutting A Body of Water’s Doug Dulgarian. This is a testament to the band’s wide-growing influence over the modern shoegaze scene which they’ve blazed an amorphous shape around these last few years on top of introducing the rest of the world at large to its boundary-pushers. KOOL FAITH // LOOSIES II, a huge, curated mixtape from the Philly outfit, doubles as an essential curio of this crucial moment across 29 seamlessly-melded tracks.
It not only puts TAGABOW’s imprints on the scene front-facing but also give equal shine to their Philly peers (Spirit of the Beehive, Greg Mendez, A Country Western), friendly contemporaries (Horse Jumper of Love, Hotline TNT), fresh faces on the rise from the Julia’s War roster (Buzz Sound honorees Cashier, Her New Knife, and Total Wife,) and reanimatons of the band’s sound across everything from the bars of alternative hip-hop (dupontpavillion, beatfella, Tony Bontana and LUCY) to ambient pop ( ). In the most purest essence of the mixtape, the production curation which pieces the diversity of the underground together is why TAGABOW are at the epicenter of the community.
Highlights: “rodman”, “stone driveway”, “town crier”
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