In the What are YOUR top 10 albums of 2016? » thread @JohnnyQuest and I talked some about breaking out a shoegazer / dream pop best of 2016 topic, but I kind of doubted there was much interest so just posted mine hidden in there someplace (the link at the start of this sentence takes you there). However, the Sounds Better With Reverb site posted their 2016 list a few days ago, and I just saw it today, so thought it might be fun to get it out there and maybe get some discussion going. Turns out, some of the ones I really like, and some of the ones JQ like, are on their list, and not surprisingly on some other lists I've seen too. I think the Dead Horse One Season Of Mist down at #35 should be much higher, it was one of my top picks and I've been listening to it a bunch, so it's just getting better, but I don't take the rankings very seriously on these music lists. It's apparently getting a bigger release in February so keep that one on your radar, it's really good, and so is their first one, Without Love We Perish. Thoughts on my list, or the list below, or your picks, or shoegaze and/or dream pop comments in general welcome ... I can definitely vouch for the goodness of some of the picks, like Nothing, Dead Horse One, Tears Run Rings, Flyying Colours, Newmoon, Pinkshinyultrablast, Hope Sandoval And The Warm Inventions, The Stargazer Lilies. Lots of others I'd like to hear ... Shoegaze And Dream Pop Albums Of 2016 | Sounds Better With Reverb » 01 Nothing - Tired Of Tomorrow (Rock/Shoegaze) 02 Newmoon - Space (Rock/Shoegaze) 03 LSD and the Search for God - Heaven Is A Place [EP] (Psych Rock/Shoegaze) 04 Leave The Planet - Nowhere [EP] (Dream Pop) 05 Japanese Breakfast - Psychopomp (Rock/Shoegaze) 06 Turnip King - Laika (Rock/Shoegaze) 07 Lazy Legs - Visiondeath (Shoegaze) 08 Day Wave - Hard To Read [EP] (Jangle Pop/Dream Pop) 09 Matt Bartram - Moments Before (Shoegaze) 10 Crescendo - Unless (Jangle Pop/Dream Pop) 11 Kindling - Everywhere Else (Shoegaze) 12 Rev Rev Rev - Des fleurs magiques bourdonnaient (Shoegaze) 13 Jaguwar - II (Noise Rock/Shoegaze) 14 DIIV - Is The Is Are (Jangle Pop/Shoegaze) 15 Dear Tracks - Soft Dreams [EP] (Jangle Pop/Dream Pop) 16 Hideous Towns - Disquiet Living (Dream Pop/New Wave) 17 Flyying Colours - Mindfulness (Rock/Shoegaze) 18 VHS Dream - Departure (Dream Pop/Shoegaze) 19 The Stargazer Lilies - Door To The Sun (Dream Pop/Psych) 20 Vivienne Eastwood - Shook [EP] (Shoegaze) 21 Tape Waves - Here To Fade (Dream Pop/Jangle) 22 Box And The Twins - Everywhere I Go Is Silence (Dream Pop/Darkwave) 23 Minor Victories - Minor Victories (Dream Pop/Post-Rock) 24 Linda Guilala - Psiconautica (Shoegaze/Dream Pop) 25 Hazel English - Never Going Home [EP] (Dream Pop/Synth) 26 Kestrels - Kelstrels (Shoegaze/Rock) 27 Landing - Complekt (Psych/Dream Pop) 28 Good Morning TV - Good Morning TV [EP] (Psych Pop/Dream) 29 Indoor Voices - Auratic [EP] (Shoegaze) 30 Tears Run Rings - In Surges (Shoegaze/Dream Pop) 31 Wray - Hypatia (Post-Punk/Shoegaze) 32 Pinkshinyultrablast - Grandfeathered (Dream Pop/Shoegaze) 33 Living Hour - Living Hour (Dream Pop/Psych) 34 True Widow - AVVOLGERE (Doom/Sludgegaze!) 35 Dead Horse One - Season Of Mist (Psych/Shoegaze) 36 Mumrunner - Gentle Slopes [EP] (Rock/Shoegaze) 37 Candance - New Future (Dream Pop) 38 Melt - Riffer (Shoegaze/Rock) 39 Miserable - Uncontrollable (Dream Pop) 40 Hope Sandoval And The Warm Inventions - Until The Hunter (Dream Pop) 41 Landing - Third Sight (Psych/Dream Pop) 42 The Florist - Blood Music (Shoegaze) 43 Fait - Sonder [EP] (Dream Pop/Instrumental) 44 Molly - Sun Sun Sun [EP] (Dream Pop/Shoegaze) 45 Lorelle Meets The Obsolete - Distance (Psych/Shoegaze) 46 Memoryhouse - Soft Hate (Dream Pop/Synth Pop) 47 Vinyl Williams - Brunei (Psych/Dream) 48 Vet Trip - Swimming In Machines (Shoegaze/Dream Pop) 49 Haiku Garden - Waver (Rock/Shoegaze) 50 Vallens - Consent (Dream Pop) 51 Lush - Blind Spot [EP] (Dream Pop/Rock) 52 Fluctuations - Nightlife [EP] (Shoegaze) 53 Salt Rush & Mark Peters - Salt Rush (Dream Pop) 54 No Joy - Drool Sucker [EP] (Rock/Shoegaze) 55 Kinoko Teikoku - Ai no Yukue (Shoegaze/Dream Pop) 56 Kigo - Sunshine (Shoegaze) 57 Floating Room - Sunless (Dream Pop) 58 Bloodhounds On My Trail - Haunted Isles [EP] (Dream Pop/Shoegaze) 59 The High Violets - Heroes And Halos (Indie Pop/Dream Pop) 60 Polykite - Primordial [EP] (Dream Pop)
I'm happy "Moments Before" made the Top 10. I honestly wasn't sure if it was going to even make the Top 25, there's some major heavy hitters on that list, but it totally deserves it's high ranking. It's a brilliant album. Thanks for posting this list, Davey. I have it bookmarked so I could check out anything I missed on Sunday. This is essential for any Shoegaze fan or novice. Sounds Better With Reverb always delivers!
Couple more shoegaze and dream pop best of 2016 lists from Shoegazer Alive 9 ... I remember listening to that Tape Waves and it seemed pretty twee, might have to give it another listen ... I'll try to find some more lists to get a better consensus, though the top albums are starting to take shape ... Shoegazer Alive 9: The 100 Best Shoegazer Albums/EPs of 2016 » Dead Horse One - Season of Mist HalloweenStabParty - Leave Me Here Newmoon - Space Flyying Colours - Mindfullness VHS Dream - Departure The Stargazer Lilies - Door To The Sun Rev Rev Rev - Des fleurs magiques bourdonnaient LSD and The Search For God - Heaven Is A Place Acid Ghost - I Am Warhol Echolust - Veldisa Tears Run Rings - In Surges Matt Bartram - Moments Before Indoor Voices - Auratic the Star Charts - the hurrier we go- the behinder we get Soda Lilies - Love Cemetery Tapes maria false - spades Clams - Clams Lush - Blind Spot EP Nothing - Tired Of Tomorrow Linda Guilala - Psiconáutica ustine Never Knew The Rules - Overseas We. the Pigs - DK31 EP Snowball II - ? La Maniobra de Q - Segundos de una Espera Omega Vague - Obsolescent Shoegazer Alive 9: The 50 Best Dreampop Albums/EPs of 2016 » Tape Waves - Here To Fade Kindling - Everywhere Else Miss Mobile Home - Glimmer Down Yohuna - Patientness Syd Lane - The Struggle of Men and Animals Against Death and Time Jeff Runnings - Primitives And Smalls Cats of Transnistria - Divine Lights That Change - Byzantium Strata Florida - Falling from Grace SPC ECO - Anomalies Mercury's Antennae - Beneath The Serene Sound Of Ceres - Nostalgia For Infinity self portraits - imperfections DIIV - Is the Is Are Atta Girl - Everyone Loves You When You Were Still A Kid Lizard Kisses - Not Seeing Is A Flower flvke - signs Pale Dian - Narrow Birth Plastic Flowers - Heavenly The Casket Girls - The Night Machines
PopMatters top 10 shoegaze/dream pop ... The 10 Best Shoegaze and Dream Pop Albums of 2016 » 10 Vinyl Williams - Brunei 9 Memoryhouse - Soft Hate 8 True Widow - Avvolgere 7 The High Violets - Heroes and Halos 6 The Stargazer Lilies - Door to the Sun 5 Pinkshinyultrablast - Grandfeathered 4 LSD and the Search for God - Heaven Is a Place EP 3 Japanese Breakfast - Psychopomp 2 Wild Nothing - Life of Pause 1 Lush - Blind Spot EP
I would say best that I've heard is Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions - Until the Hunter. It would also be my choice for best of any genre.
That one did get a lot of love around here and in the press, but to be honest, it left me a bit disappointed. Not sure exactly why, I generally love the Hope Sandoval sound going all the way back to the Mazzy Star debut, but this new one just didn't seem to connect with me, maybe too familiar and mellow sounding. I only streamed it a couple times so didn't buy, but maybe I'll have to revisit later when in a different frame of reference, most of the records that captured my imagination this year were by newish bands I wasn't very familiar with, and so they probably seem more exciting in comparison.
The fastnbulbous end of 2016 breakdown below for dream pop and shoegaze ... I always like reading his lists, and often agree and/or find something new to love, especially this year ... Fester’s Lucky 13: 2016 Year-End Summary | Fast 'n' Bulbous » Dream Pop Day Wave is Oakland musician Jackson Phillips. Like Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever , this isn’t exactly a full-length, but rather a compilation of EPs from last year and this year. While Day Wave is partially jangle pop along the lines of Real Estate, I discovered it on the Sounds Better With Reverb year-end list, which focuses on shoegaze and dream pop. I found the debut from L.A. band Crescendo the same way. They cover jangle pop, dream pop, shoegaze and post-punk. Jeff Runnings has put out post-punk and dream pop with For Against for the past 30 years. Primitives And Smalls is his solo debut. Michigan’s Dear Tracks also had a promising debut EP of jangle and dream pop. More like these, please. I can’t believe it had already been four years since DIIV’s debut Oshin was released. Their somewhat lightweight sounding dream pop with a tinge of post-punk is deceptive, as underneath the shimmering veneer apparently is a deeply troubled band, if any of the tabloid-ish reporting of addiction, arrests and drama is to be believed. Whatever is going on, their second album has some substance, and is worthy of some deep listening. Just missing the list, School Of Seven Bells, Mystery Jets, Postiljonen, Hope Sandoval And The Warm Inventions, Still Corners. | Spotify Day Wave – Headcase/Hard To Read (Grand Jury) | Buy DIIV – Is The Is Are (Captured Tracks) | Bandcamp Crescendo – Unless (We Were Never Being Boring) | Bandcamp Jeff Runnings – Primitives And Smalls (Sainte Marie) | Bandcamp Dear Tracks – Soft Dreams (Track And Field) | Bandcamp Beverly – The Blue Swell (Kanine) | Bandcamp FEWS – Means (PIAS) | Bandcamp Luisa Maita – Fio de memória (Cumbancha) | Bandcamp The Radio Dept. – Running Out Of Love (Labrador) | Buy Magic Potion – Pink Gum (PNKSLM) | Bandcamp Wild Nothing – Life Of Pause (Captured Tracks) | Bandcamp Warpaint – Heads Up (Rough Trade) Sennen – First Light (Indelabel) Shoegaze For the second year in a row The Lucid Dream tops this list. At a time when many bands take several years between releases, it’s refreshing to be pleasantly surprised by a new album just a year after their second album. Most of the original elements are there — motorik kosmische and Suicide (“Nadir/Epitaph”), bluesy Western-tinged garage noir (“The Emptiest Place”), and noisy overdriven psychedelia with the sneering, bad energy of Loop and Clinic turned to eleven (“21st Century”). I honestly don’t know why they’re not more popular at this point. Suns Of Thyme are also in the psych list, but they’re so good, and so many things – psych pop, post-punk, dream pop, shoegaze and fizzing kosmische. There’s even some prog in there. Their PR identifies the German band as “krautgaze,” but it’s hard to predict which category their next album will land in. Ever think Deafheaven or Alcest would be great if they just dropped the black metal shrieking? Astronoid finally did it! Just missing the list, Jaguwar, Kindling, Warpaint, The KVB, Leave The Planet, LSD and the Search for God, Deftones, Plastic Animals. | Spotify The Lucid Dream – Compulsion Songs (Holy How Are You) | Buy Suns Of Thyme – Cascades (Napalm) | Bandcamp Astronoid – Air (Blood Music) | Bandcamp Nothing – Tired Of Tomorrow (Relapse) | Bandcamp Emma Ruth Rundle – Marked For Death (Sargent House) | Bandcamp Alcest – Kodama (Prophecy) | Bandcamp Newmoon – Space (PIAS) | Buy Teksti-TV 666 – 1,2,3 (Svart) | Bandcamp Turnip King – Laika (Fire Talk) | Bandcamp Lazy Legs – VISIONDEATH (Lazy Legs) | Bandcamp Minor Victories – Minor Victories (Fat Possum) | Bandcamp Matt Bartram – Moments Before (Drifting Falling) | Bandcamp Pinkshinyultrablast – Grandfeathered (Club AC30) | Bandcamp
BTW, mentioned in another thread about a brand new Various Artist dream pop compilation from The Blog That Celebrates Itself Records that you can download for name your price on bandcamp. The comp is called Violet "Dreampop", and features 13 mostly unknown artists. Found it via email from Lake Ruth since they have a new song that leads off the comp, and their 2016 Actual Entity is currently one of my favorite records, not sure it fits completely under the "dream pop" banner, but I don't get too carried away with these labels. Anyway, I downloaded the full comp in flac, it's mostly 16-44.1K, but a few songs are 24-bit, and the Lake Ruth is 24-48K. Surprisingly, there's a lot of really nice music on here. I'd already listened to the Lake Ruth track a few times, and really like it, but the second song by Pipe's Not Dead is great too, it's a new song called "Hibernation". From their soundcloud page ... PIPE'S NOT DEAD ! is a dreampop/darkwave/shoegaze audio-visual project of Massimiliano Nardulli(Bucharest, Romania)and Gabriele Saffioti(Berlin, Germany). We love to create atmospheres and sounds that can be the soundtracks for a cinematic approach of the music, We like to call our music SOUNDGAZE. Below is the link and tracklist, name your price means you can download for free if you like too ... VA - Colors Compilations - Violet "Dreampop", by The Blog That Celebrates Itself Records » 1. Lake Ruth - Empty Morning 03:15 2. Pipe´s Not Dead - Hibernation 04:32 3. The Us - I Will Get Numb 04:12 4. The Skating Party - Remember the Chain 03:46 5. Claudio Cataldi - Let's Go To The Secret Place 02:40 6. Desario - Capture 04:01 7. Electric Lo Fi Seresta - Noites Brancas (White Nights) 05:27 8. Inspiraling - When It Pours 04:50 9. Pure Morning - Cielo 06:01 10. Quazares - Acariciando tu Alma 04:16 11. Queridas - Talar 02:32 12. Soft Science - Breaking 03:38 13. Swellebound - Rifle 04:10
Distant Echoes ep, by Lazy Circle » For those who like this type of stuff (like I do) here is a digital ep I put out before the end of last year. Listen for free. Hope my Forum brothers and sisters dig it...
Well, I think most of us are probably a bit out of touch, that's kind of why I wanted to do this thread, to try and determine if there is much of a consensus on the best albums, and there does seem to be some consensus in the lists so far. I've only heard a handful of new shoegaze this year, but most of what I have heard is very good, like the ones I mentioned in the opening post and have scattered about in other threads. If you wanna do some 2016 shoegaze sampling, I'd recommend these to start ... Newmoon - Space Nothing - Tired Of Tomorrow Dead Horse One - Season of Mist (or the last one Without Love We Perish) Emma Ruth Rundle – Marked For Death (one of my top favorites this year, but not all of us call this shoegaze) Tears Run Rings - In Surges The Lucid Dream - Compulsion Songs Flyying Colours - Mindfullness
I really liked the Lush Blind Spot EP. Regarding the other records, I had no idea that shoegaze was still alive. I thought it was a dead genre.
This is one of the songs on the dream pop comp I listed above, from the Mexican band Pure Morning, this the single from their upcoming record, song is called "Cielo", very nice ...
Thanks for this. I know a couple of these bands - and while Nothing have yet to blow me away, I can agree that Flyying Colours are the tits.
Yea, I'm not a huge fan of the Nothing record either, maybe not quite enough shoegaze sound, but I like that Flyying Colours a lot too, they really let go on the opener ... One of my favorites this year was the split release by Presents for Sally & 93MillionMilesFromTheSun, in part because I didn't know of Presents for Sally and really like their half of the record, and now I also have and like their full length from 2015. But 93MillionMilesFromTheSun put out one of the best shoegaze records in 2015 called Fall Into Nothing, you'd probably like that one too.
Revisiting the Tears Run Rings In Surges record today... it really is a nice one, kind of straddling the dream pop/shoegaze line with lots of shimmer ... Full Album on youtube Best New Album of 2016
Listening to this EP for the first time today, prompted by a search for Dead Horse One (was listening to the very great Without Love We Perish vinyl today) and I found this bandcamp list from last year ... Ten Modern Shoegaze Bands: A Primer ... and it is some pretty good stuff. Not sure why I didn't investigate this one at the time, kind of thin sounding on the digital download, but lots of shimmer, hope they do put out a full length at some point ... and DR9 for a shoegaze album, not that it sounds great but that alone is almost unheard these days ...
So it's 2 years ago but TOP Shoegaze of 2016. WHAT A YEAR! These are my top picks.... Ashae Fax - Never Really Been Into It. I believe this is a husband and wife duo that put out a electro clash tape in the 90's/early 2000's. The one weird thing about is the odd song that could be a lost Cocteau Twin demo or the beside to Love's Easy Tears. Even the name sound like a Cocteau Twins Song, Dynamite Dust. They started an full length and never finished until a decade later Mexican Summer contact them to release it and reissue the tape on vinyl. So the full length is not electro clash but that reminds me of the Cocteau Twins Heaven or Las Vegas. I rank HOLS as my favorite LP. There's something about this album that reminds me of the Cocteau Twins more than anything else I've heard. The whole mood, the guitars, drum machine, production. I was/am CRAZY about this record. Rev Rev Rev - Des fleurs magiques bourdonnaient HEAVY pyschedelic shoegaze from Italy.I want to hear more bands like this. I wait for this record for 3 months in shipping hell from the band, but it was worth Lazy Legs - Visiondeath Local favorites. Their music is kind of abstract shoegaze and the best music to listen to walking around in the snow. Too bad this only came out on a tape Also: Presents for Sally & 93MillionMilesFromTheSun - Split Flyying Colours - Mindfulness No Joy - Drool Sucker Matt Bartram - Moments Before Kindling - Everywhere Else