Back to shoegazing!
After a few weeks of dabbling in Pink Floyd and Richard Wagner and Gustav Mahler—and I mean to get back to them down the line—I return to the genres that have kept me going this fall season: shoegaze and dream pop.
Last night, I came across a cool project from 2017: a compilation that supports Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union. Luscious guitars played to challenge tyranny? Sign me up.
The first track by Whimsical had me hooked! I had to look into this band that I hadn't heard of (always an exciting feeling). As it turns out, the band existed at a time when shoegaze was in a bit of a slump: they were active from the late 90s to 2005. I found a neat YouTube interview in which two band members had a discussion of their history.
A fun bit of trivia is that Krissy Vanderwoude works at DKFM while Neil Burkdoll's Among the Clouds involved guests from the scene, validating the idea that shoegaze is the scene that celebrates itself. I freakin' love the community and the engagement between artists and fans. While 2025 has been a difficult year for me in several aspects, I'm happy I found a genre that I can spend my downtime exploring.
And the timing is apt: Whimsical released their sophomore album in 2017 and have been making new music. Here's one I really dig from their album in 2022:
I also downloaded the DKFM app. I unsubscribed from Spotify months ago; I can't believe I didn't think of checking out genre-based radio stations to get my fix! I also downloaded the Bandcamp app and am already digging the ability to find new music with intentionality, instead of leaving it up to algorithms.
From this came a few pleasant discoveries. First, Obscure, an aptly-named Japanese shoegaze band that has long since disbanded. It's too bad: they have a sound that gets reallllly close to My Bloody Valentine's Loveless:
Another is We Lost the Sea, an instrumental post-rock band from Australia. (While the topic of this post is shoegaze, in the broader context, I've been more open to new music lately—this was truly a happy discovery as something about the album art struck me.) I'm excited to play this in a future writing session:
Then, this track by Yndling:
The discovery that I'm most excited about is what inspired this post: Alison's Halo. I came across their name several times in my September/October exploration, but I only gave them a listen when I saw them on Bandcamp.
It's good. Really good. "Slowbleed" is a track I'm already getting lost in, and I expect the rest of the album will keep growing on me. The best part is that I found out Alison's Halo is once again active. Part of me wishes I could experience what the scene was like in the 90s, but the other part is thrilled that I'm catching the resurgence in full swing. TikTok has its issues, and I know it's cool for Millennials to rip on Gen Z's fixation with it, but I tip my hat to the youth who brought attention back to the scene.