REVOLUTION - The Shoegaze Revival ✶HIDEOUS TOWNS || INTENNA || SLOW MOTION PICTURE || HERMETIC DELIGHT✶

Hey Shoegaze People!

Today is the big day! I'm so happy and joyful about the whole thing and how all these amazing people were working as a whole to promote the REVOLUTION - The Shoegaze Revival compilation. Today's Release by Ear to Ear Records and Gerpfast Kolektif is something very special. 30 bands from all over the world are participating in a project to show the music world that the Shoegaze Scene is more alive than ever.

Aparte from the bands on the compilation, there are so many incredible talented people out there playing beautifule noisy music and keeping the spirit of Shoegazing alive. I'm more then proud to be part of this evolution and I hope I can help to keep interested people informed about new talents..
So now! Get your ass of your seat, download the compilation right HERE and start gazing at your shoes! #freedownload

Last but not least there are 4 bands left: Hideous Towns, Intenna, Slow Motion Picture and Hermetic Delight. Enjoy!

Hideous Towns (Australia)

Ryan and Chris have been friends for years, moving in together after high school where they started writing subpar guitar pop songs. Ashley was discovered through his mother who worked with Ryan at a pub and heard Ryan playing music off his phone that she was used to hearing from Ashley's room, she knew he wanted to drum in a proper band.

After a few months of practicing and mucking around at Ashley's place, Alana was found from a music website after she recently moved to Melbourne looking for a band to join. Straight away it was obvious that she was an incredible singer and fit perfectly.

The songs started pouring out, now fully formed and deemed good enough to show the public. First gig was played in September 2013 and since then there have been many more. There is a self-recorded and self-released single and now a full EP out as of November 2014.

INTENNA (Indonesia)

Intenna was founded in November 2010 and is from Malang, Indonesia. The band members are Ni Nyoman Nanda Putri Lestari, Dwianto Prastowo, Ovan Zaihnudin, Pugud Haidi Agusdilla, and Henry Setyawan.

We are group band consist of five member from Malang, East Java, Indonesia. Ni Nyoman Nanda Putri Lestari as the only girl in the band takes the vocal duty, then Dwianto Prastowo and also Ovan Zaihnudin as guitarists, Pugud Haidi Agusdilla as bassist and the last one, the man behind all of us, Henry Setyawan as drummer. About the genre of our music, we cannot specify it, but according to Indonesian music site, WastedRockers. They wrote and call our music : "Intenna is like the crossover between slowcore, dreampop, lo-fi, space rock and drone rock, which is almost can be heard from the English band in 90's era, such as Flying Saucer Attack, Loveliescrushing, Jessamine, Movietone, Crescent and Amp." So maybe, it can be say, it's bit difficult to coup the texture of our music, right?

Right now, we are working on our first album. The plan is that we can release it at the end of this year or maybe on early 2015. We already released cassete record split album with fellow group Guttersnipe, under the Forthe Records label. This cassete already sold out since February 2014 where we contributed two singles titled Flowery and Thirst. We also have two singles more as demo that is, Dansa Hujan and Little Miss Sunshine which were recorded in 2010.  

SLOW MOTION PICTURE (US)

Slow Motion Picture’s debut 'In Memory Of…' is an album covered in layers of hidden meanings and buried references to characters its listeners will never actually meet, yet still takes its audience on a journey of pure empathy.

Each of the album’s ten songs are based upon a ghost story that multi-instrumentalist/guitarist Brian Caesar (As Tall As Lions) wrote in his early twenties as a way to cope with the passing of his father. Filling each song with haunting vocal melodies, luscious orchestral accompaniment and endless layers of fuzz driven guitars, Caesar, along with former vocalist Lauren Edman (Sleepthief), developed a sound that blended the depth of modern film scores with an airy timbre reminiscent of the shoegaze bands of the early 90’s.

Bringing in drummer Aaron Kelly, bassist Dan Timmons and keyboard/synth player Marco Talamo enabled Edman and Caesar to finally bring these songs to the stage in 2013.

Performing under the name 'For Every Story Untold', the five-piece has played some of the most profound venues of New York and Brooklyn, generating significant buzz with their immense sound. They have opened for international touring acts, including a sold out performance with Susanne Sundfør and highly praised bands Owel, Color War and Salt Cathedral.

The band recently added the heart-stopping voice of Scottish singer/multi-instrumentalist Anna Popplestone to its lineup and is looking forward to playing several dates in support of the new LP.

HERMETIC DELIGHT (France)

Postpunk? Shoegaze ? Pop? Hermetic Delight aren’t afraid to play with aesthetics, embracing a singular identity. With the release of Heartbeat 12’’, in 2013, their last maxi single that splashed all over the blogosphere, the five members of Hermetic Delight have built up a solid following and are a band to keep an eye on. 

REVOLUTION - The Shoegaze Revival ✶THE YOURS || ROBSONGS || WOZNIAK || STELLARSCOPE✶

Hey Shoegaze People!

This is the second post today concerning REVOLUTION - The Shoegaze Revival compilation by Ear to Ear Records and Gerpfast Kolektif. There are a few bands left and release is happening tomorrow. Everyone's so excited. We are part of something really big and there are so many blogs, magazines and websites involved. Shoegaze is working through the internet today. I feel so close to so many people I never met in real life (yet!) and that's so incredible amazing how this whole thing worked. I'm very honored to  be a part of this process showing the world how this scene is more alive then ever!
So the featured bands are: The Yours, Robsongs, Wozniak and Stellarscope. Enjoy.

THE YOURS (China)

The Yours are a Hong Kong based alternative rock band. The band was originally formed by Jack Leung (guitar, vocals) and Nic Wong (guitar, bass, vocals) in 2005 and released their debut EP, Abraham, on Lona Records in 2006. Known for their confrontational stage presence, the band quickly established themselves as one of the most unique acts in the underground scene of Hong Kong. Their early music was variously described as a mixture of post punk and shoegaze, which featured reverb saturated guitars and a steady, almost drum-machine like rhythm section.
 
After the release of Abraham, The Yours went through multiple line-up changes, with Jack and Nic remaining the sole consistent members, until the band decided to record a full-length studio album. In 2011, the band recruited Gwyneth Tang (Vocals/Guitar), Nelson Ko (Drums) and Tim Ng (Guitar) to complete the line-up. The band’s debut album, The Way We Were, was recorded by Lona Record’s Alok Leung and released in August 2012 on Imagine-Imagine-Imagine Records. Incorporating well-crafted melodies and fuzzed out guitar riffs reminiscent of the early 1990’s, the album was met with critical acclaim upon its release, with Dazed and Confused listing the band as one of the East Asia’s new wave of talents. In 2013, the band embarked on their first-ever tour in China and released a Japanese edition of “The Way We Were” with Disk Union in Japan.
 
The band’s sophomore album, “Teenagarten” was released in July 2014. Recorded by Yang Haisong of P.K14 at Psychic Kong in Beijing, the second album is rawer, darker and more intense than its predecessor, yet maintains the band’s rich melodic structures and teenage angst.
 
Since their formation, The Yours have been one of the most active bands in Hong Kong, making numerous appearances at music festivals and performing with multiple international acts, most notably The Jesus And Mary Chain in 2012. The band’s most recent line-up consists of Jack Leung (guitar, vocals), Nic Wong (bass, vocals) and Tim Ng (guitar)
 
In July, 2014, The Yours signed to Maybe Mars, the leading independent record label in China.

ROBSONGS (Brazil)

Robsongs is the solo project of Brazil’s Robson Gomes, which began back in 2008 under another name with friends Alex and Augusto Medeiros Vitorino. The Robsongs project (Brazil) began back in 2008, initially under the name Minha Vida Nunca Foi um Picnic (My Life Was Never a Picnic). After Alex’s premature death and several trials and tribulations, the group disbanded. Since that time, Robson maintained the spirit of this project as a solo artist, recording music in his home studio. Robson began to compose new songs with something relevant to say through his music and lyrics, meticulously producing and arranging them. Thus was born the Robsongs project. These songs are dedicated to Alex Vitorino, who began this all with Robson so many years ago and left this planet too soon – his spirit lives on through this project.

In parallel, Robson is the lead singer-guitarist in Brazil’s renowned indie rock group The Concept, which just celebrated 20 years since its foundation and were slated to play with such headlining bands as Ringo Deathstarr and The Telescopes. He is also the guitarist in reggae band Banda Damata.

Taken together, Robsongs’ music shows distinct similarities to the likes of Brian Jonestown Massacre, Black Market Karma, The Doors, Happy Mondays, Dead Horse One, Spacemen 3, The Koolaid Electric Company, Kingdom of the Holy Sun and some of The Beatles’ more experimental works.

Robsongs is signed to The Blog That Celebrates Itself Records and has already released 3 EPs and numerous singles through this label over the past two years, as well as participating in various compilations. 

Wozniak (Scotland)

Hailing from Edinburgh (Scotland), four-piece Wozniak were formed in 2012 on a mission to cause terminal tinnitus with their brooding (largely) instrumental cocktail of feedback, reverb and delay, distorted bass tones and pounding drum beats.

The band have just released their latest track Five Star a taster from their work-in-progress album due for release in 2015 on Morningside Young Team Records.

This is the first new material from the band since their well-received Pikes Peak EP which racked up positive reviews and airplay from Scotland, and beyond. Released in June, that collection of songs took inspiration from shoegaze, post rock, hard rock and no wave, 70s public information films and 80s Japanese cartoons.

Wozniak have played extensively across Scotland in 2014 and 2015 is already looking set to be a busy year, with plans for shows in London and Dublin taking shape and the album already underway.

STELLARSCOPE (US)

Philadelphia’s Stellarscope are a staple of the shoegaze and alternative rock scene, constantly on a mission of creating new and exciting music. Their music is dark and emotive but with pop sensibility. Stellarscope’s energetic live performances has garnered the band accolades from peers, as well as fans. With multiple releases under their belts, they continue to march forward and evolve with the times. Their music has appeared in many compilations and tribute albums, documentaries as well as on MTV, A&E, Discovery Channel, Alli Sports TV, and more.
Their latest album "The End is Near, I'm Not Prepared' was released in March 2014 on Patetico Recordings. Their focus on the new album was to create more sonically-charged fast-paced postpunk indiepop shoegaze anthems, which would appeal to a broader audience, with a tongue-in-cheek attitude. 

REVOLUTION - The Shoegaze Revival ✶BLOOD LIPS || MAGAO || THUD || SHARESPRINGS✶

Hey Shoegaze People.

Tomorrow is Release Day! I hope you're all as excited as I am. REVOLUTION - The Shoegaze Revival Compilation by Ear to Ear Records and Gerpfast Kolektif will show the world how the new generation of Shoegaze sounds like. It's for free download!

There will be more than one post today on this blog 'cause I don't want to miss a single band on this compilation and there are a few left to name.
Let's begin with Blood Lips, Magao, Thud and Sharesprings.

BLOOD LIPS (UK)

Blood Lips are a three piece band from North Wales and Manchester, formed in 2014. Recorded and produced by Marc Joy of Ferndale Productions, the 'Brittle Bones' EP was the band's debut EP. Released on November 17, 2014 through Ear to Ear Records, the EP features four tracks of dark, brooding guitar music.

The band played their first gigs at the Focus Wales festival and industry showcase in Wrexham, North Wales in 2014, to very positive reviews. They are focused on live shows around the UK following the release of their 'Brittle Bones' EP. 

MAGAO(Japan)

Magao is a Japanese shoegaze fusion project based in the city of Chiba. This is the brainchild of Magao, who is 19 years old. He is an independent artist, not affiliated with any record label to date, other than participating in compilations. The most recent of these was by Canata Records.

While this solo project began approximately 1 1/2 years ago, Magao also plays guitar in another band, called Soltyknown.

Magao's sounds are reminiscent of Coaltar of the Deepers and Luna Sea, who he identifies as inspiration for his compositions. 

THUD (China)

Five weirdos got together in the winter of 2012. In the very early days of this band, there were only three people and they were Wang on bass, Wai on drums and Andy on guitar. Wang and Wai, who founded the band, are also brothers. After trying hard to find a one more person to join, at last, Andy found his classmate Kim, followed by Sky on guitar. Although each of the band members has different musical preferences and backgrounds, they all get along well and manage to create rather fine dreamy music together.
While Thud have yet to deliver their first official release, they have already got the attention of NME, Sounds Better With Reverb and Drowned in Sound.
In the words of Dom Gourlay of Drowned in Sound: "Self-confessed Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine obsessives Thud are something of an anomaly where the Hong Kong music scene is concerned. While many of their contemporaries take the traditional cantopop route, they can be heard conjuring up experimental pieces such as recent single 'Lime', which carries an ethereal grace in a similar vein to Seefeel or Moonshake back in the day."

SHARESPRINGS (Indonesia)

Sharesprings is a fascinating twee shoegaze indie pop band from Jakarta, Indonesia, which was founded in 2006. They have strong influences ranging from My Bloody Valentine to the Ecstasy and Wine's era, Yo La Tengo, and Eternal. The band is rooted in the element of late 80's and early 90's music. With a simple structure, the indie pop concept combines with the shoegaze style and noisy atmosphere backdrop.

In February 2014, they released a split-single with The Wellington on Heyho! Records. The band formed as a trio in the middle of this decade and produced the demo ‘It’s Just Noise And Pop’, followed by their first official single in 2010 with ‘I Love To See You (Daydreaming Me)‘. 

 

REVOLUTION - The Shoegaze Revival ✶SOUNDS OF SPUTNIK || LIGHTS THAT CHANGE || CLUSTERSUN || ETHER FEELS || THE EVENING PRIMROSE✶

Hey Shoegaze People.

So it's time again for a new post about REVOLUTION - The Shoegaze Revival Compilation. It's brought to you by Ear to Ear Records and Gerpfast Kolektif und will be released on Feb 11th. It's for free download! We are the new Generation of Shoegaze and you are all a part of this amazing progress. So keep your eyes and ears open. This time I'll introduce to you: Sounds Of Sputnik, Lights That Change, Clustersun, Ether Feels and The Evening Primrose. Enjoy.

SOUNDS OF SPUTNIK (Russia)

Sounds of Sputnik is a project spearheaded by Roma Kalitkin, whose signature sound mixes post-rock, shoegaze and dream pop with a slight kickback to noise pop. He draws inspiration from My Bloody Valentine, Jesus and Mary Chain, Ride, Sonic Youth, Happy Mondays, and Slowdive.

Dubbing himself a “white crow”, the music he makes has always gone against trends within his home country of Russia, both as a solo artist and for the 20 years he played in various post-punk, alternative and shoegaze bands.

Sounds of Sputnik released his debut album "New Born" on Ear to Ear Records (UK) on November 21, 2014.

Sounds of Sputnik has grabbed the attention of numerous celebrated people, who became involved in this album, including Graham Bonnar (Swervedriver, Brian Jonestown Massacre), Malcolm Holmes (OMD), Fran Ashcroft (Damon Albarn, Lords of Acid), and Ummagma, who co-wrote, co-produced and performed on this album. Sounds of Sputnik also received a top prize at the 2014 Jagermeister Russian Indie Music Awards in the 'Young Blood' nomination category, as well as one for Best East European Video at the 2014 Australian Independent Music Video Awards.

LIGHTS THAT CHANGE  (UK)

Lights That Change is a shoegaze, dreampop, ethereal wave project that renowned British producer Marc Joy began years ago. It represents a culmination of his many years producing, engineering, and mastering artists from a broad range of genres, as well as his own solo and collaborative creative endeavours. This is an initiative to get back to why he began a career in music in the first place, looking for the perfect dreamscape sonic horizon, created primarily on the basis of guitars.

This project is envisioned in a similar format to This Mortal Coil, for instance - a colourful revolving door of collaborators, with Marc as the foundation. Musician Lisa Von H contributed vocals for the Lights That Change EP and Beautiful Soul single, as well as tracks on the Rainbow On Your Shoulder EP. The latter two were released through Ear to Ear Records. More recently, Lights That Change have been working with numerous other collaborators, including Malcolm Holmes of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD). The result of these new developments shall be revealed on Lights That Change's debut album, which is due early 2015. 

CLUSTERSUN (Italy)

Clustersun are into washy loud shoegazey reverberations, walls of sound, cold wave atmospheres, psychedelic journeys, and crystal clear dreamy melodies. They were formed in Catania, Italy, and have been making noise together since the beginning of 2013. Their first self-produced single “Be Vegetal”, was included in the CD Summer Sampler 2013, published by U.S. label Custom Made Music. They subsequently signed to Italian label Seahorse Recordings to release their debut album “Out Of Your Ego” in April 2013.

The first single chosen from the album, “Hipgnosis”, reveals the band signature sound: hypnotic-obsessive bass lines, dark and cold drum patterns, strongly expressive guitar spanning from an ambient ethereal mood to fuzz-and-reverb madness, fat analog synths and dreamy melodies. 

ETHER FEELS (Japan)

Ether Feels is a Japanese trio, who play shoegaze music with a leaning towards indie rock and power pop. Members Tomo, Yoko and Kita-Kun are based in Osaka, Japan. Ryuichi Sakamoto, Ride, Nirvana, David Sylvian, MBV, J&MC, Wannadies and Lemonheads are among the bands who have inspired them.

They released their first 8-track album "Ether Feels" in July 2010, and followed up with their second 7-track album "Raindrop Sparkle" in November 2011. Available through Amazon and Disk Union within Japan (search for "Ether Feels").

In 2012, they released the 4-track EP "Annabelle Flowers" on CD
through Bah! Records Indonesia, quickly followed by another 4-track EP "Red Dress Girl" on Bandcamp. They also participated in the shoegaze compilation "The Sun Rises in the East", released on Shiny Happy Records, alongside other renowned Japanese bands like Flannel, Sugardrop, Oeil, and Bertoia. In July 2014, Ether Feels released its latest EP "Twilight Dreams" on CD, which is available through Tower Records Japan, Amazon Japan, Bandcamp, and elsewhere.

From 2012 to 2014, they have been playing concerts and have performed at some high level festivals, such as the Japan Shoegazer Festival Osaka and Kyoto Shoegazer Festival. Through these events, they have shared the stage with Lemon's Chair, Cruyff in the Bedroom, Kipu Kirota, AOQ, Saturday and Penguin and Coffee, Cigarette in Your Bed, Boyfriends Dead, and Penguin Airways...

THE EVENING PRIMROSE (China)

The Evening Primrose is a Hong Kong dreampop, neo-folk, shoegaze duo formed in 2006 between finindie & michhy. They issued their first debut album "Stargazer" in 2007. Their second album "Starless" came out in 2011 and their third album "Starfalling" in 2012.
The duo is currently in the process of recording their fourth album
"Daydream With You Tonight". 

REVOLUTION - The Shoegaze Revival ✶UMMAGMA || TREMENTINA || PUNA || WEIRD. || SEASIDE✶

Hey Shoegaze People.
 
I'm happy to keep on with the introduction of all the amazing artists of the upsoming REVOLUTION - The Shoegaze Revival Compilation by Ear to Ear Records and Gerpfast Kolektif. A lot of Blogs and websites just joined in lately and started promoting this huge thing. Thanks to all of them and a huge thank you to Shauna McLarnon. Without her this all won't be possible as she is putting such a lot of effort in this.
So for now, enjoy todays featured bands Ummagma, Trementina, Puna, Weird. and Seaside.

UMMAGMA (Ukraine)

Ummagma emerged on the music scene by simultaneously releasing two LPs (Ummagma & Antigravity) in 2012. They recently released the double A-side single Rotation and the Lama LP on Emerald & Doreen Recordings. Ummagma has been the focus of a full-page feature in Rolling Stone Russia, has won Alternative Eurovision competitions for 2 years in a row (Amazing Radio in 2013 & Pure 107.8 FM in 2014), and received 2 awards at the 2013 Australian Independent Music Video Awards.
Ummagma has also caught the attention of Robin Guthrie (Cocteau Twins) and Malcolm Holmes (OMD), who have remixed tracks for fall 2014 release. In 2013, Ummagma was declared "Band of the Year" in the blog Shoegaze Love. Ummagma is also a finalist in Australia's 2014 AIMVA Awards (winners to be announced in December). 

TREMENTINA (Chile)

Trementina started as an idea in a small rainy town in a small unknown country (Chile). Cristobal (guitar) wanted to create something new, something that had never been seen there, so he began searching for this new sound, making a post-punk band together with his friend Lucas (bass guitar) and some childhood friends. Nevertheless, the style didn't fulfill them. They wanted to make something fresh, with some old twisted shoegaze freedom. So they left their mind open and started to make some noise with those pedals. But something was missing – they were lacking a lead singer. Playing this kind of craziness required a female voice to sweeten this music, so they asked Vanessa (vocals and guitar) to join them.

One day Vanessa went to Cristobal's house feeling really sick due to turpentine poisoning. She was an arts student, so she always was complaining about the nausea that comes with hours of painting. Cristobal was curious about the name "trementina", as it’s a pretty name and a beautiful concept. Turpentine (Trementina) it's something used to make art, but also to erase it and start over, it was perfect.

After recorded a few songs in Cristobal's home studio, Soundcloud brought their sound all over the world – to fans, radio, magazines and blogs. It also led to them releasing their first self-recorded EP through Japanese label Vinyl Junkies.  

PUNA (Peru)

Puna is a shoegaze electronic hybrid music project, formed in 2008 in Lima, Peru by Jorge Rivas O 'Connor, José Rodríguez, Gerardo Flores and Arnold Medina. They make music within the post-rock current, assimilating styles therein from such genres as Ambient, Ethereal, Shoegaze, Noise, Dreampop, IDM, Space and Drone.
Puna's current makeup includes Jorge Rivas O'Connor on guitars, strings, keyboards and midi, and Jose Rodriguez on guitars and strings, Rolando Apollo guitar and bass, oscillator.
In 2009, Puna released the "Puna" maxi-single through independent label Dorog Records. In 2010, the band released the "Mediodía en la la Luna" EP independently. In 2012, they also independently released their second EP "Dawn of the End". In 2013, the band released the 'Inmerso' single through Latin America Shoegaze. Puna's latest release came in August 2014, when Dorog Records released the long-play album "Au dial". 

WEIRD. (Italy)

Weird. began in Rome in the second half of 2011, and is basically the brainchild of Marco Barzetti (guitar and vocals).

Matteo D’Argenio (bass guitar) and Massimiliano Pecci (drums) joined him by the end of the year, and the band spent most of 2012 experimenting in the studio.

The result of this exploring is their debut album "Desert Love For Lonely Graves" (2013), which was recorded and mixed by Marco Barzetti at his home studio, and mastered by Lacopo Sinigaglia (Libra).

All seven tracks flow slowly between reverberate guitars and vocals, autumnal bass and sepulchral drums, while diverse musical genres such as shoegaze and psychedelia converge beautifully.

In April 2013, D'Argenio left the band and was replaced by Giovanni Romano. After this, Weird. began touring throughout Italy.

In 2014, the band started recording their sophomore LP. On November 4th, Weird. broke the silence with "Infinite Decay", the first single from their upcoming new album, expected for release in early 2015

SEASIDE (Indonesia)

Seaside is a rather 'complete' shoegaze & dreampop band from Jakarta, Indonesia. Their sonic landscape not only delivers waves of reverb with a delay-laden guitar sound, but this also mixes wonderfully with synthesizer and keyboards. To round this off perfectly, this blends together with loveable lyrics and waves of beautiful noises.