You know what, it is very hard not to get overwhelmed. It is inevitable for all of us. For me, I have been overwhelmed with balancing a job, finding love life/having a social life, and keeping up with school. However, I want to focus about the only good type of feeling overwhelmed. By that, I am talking about the amount of fresh new music that has surfaced in the most recent year. Think about it, Yuck, Diiv, Porches, Animal Collective, and so many more. As I promised previously, I wanted to focus on bands that are characterized as dream rock/shoegaze/noise pop. For that, let’s now face the music with Pinkshinyultrablast’s new album: Grandfeathered.

What kind of name is Pinkshinyultrablast, anyway? Here is their background story. The band hails from St. Petersburg, Russia (not unique to the sound they are known for). Once the quintet formed, they preferred something that seemed more uncommon in the modern 2000 indie world. Inspired by a band named Astrobrite, a dream pop/shoegaze band that originated in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. Astrobrite put out an album called “Pinkshinyultrablast,” which spurred the band in the direction that they wanted to go to. Astrobrite, to me and many other music lovers, incorporates a constant flow of distortion and distance between vocals and instruments. Many times, but not always, many popular shoegaze bands have a female singer (Cocteau Twins, My Bloody Valentine, and Lush). Pinkshinyultrablast does a fantastic job incorporating many of the needed traits from their lead vocalist, Lyubov Soloveva and noisy musicians. On many levels, it seems that PSUB wanted to transform into a more complex electronic noise band, but evolved more pop-ish. Who knows if that is what they actually wanted to do, but I will be damned if it didn’t work.

Since the 80’s and most importantly, 90’s shoegaze, many groups who chose to follow this path seem to diminish with each year. Consistently, I have been a follower of electronic pop/noise pop since I can remember. PSUB gives me so much hope that this sub genre has not been completely wiped out. If there is any way that I can describe this album, it is through space and wave movement. It is hard to be relaxed when listening to any of these songs, because there is so much going on. However, there is a comforting feeling of ambiance on every track. Airy guitar riffs and distant vocals often makes one feel like they are falling through an endless track of clouds. . The vocalist, additionally, creates a sense of confusion as to where one actually is. Where is the voice coming from and how can I get to it? But, the clashing noise of the crash symbol and heavy distortion layers on the guitar bring you back to a crazy, fast moving reality. Essentially, you are getting both extremes of this genre in many segments of one track. Many of the songs go in waves. HEAVY, soft and distant, back to HEAVY, HEAVY, crash down to ambient, END IN HEAVY. Music with a heartbeat that constantly brings you back to reality when you are slipping away. My favorite track from the album has to be Möllky or The Cherry Pit. Each song incorporates their own entity of shoegaze tidal waves that bring you into shore and back out into the ocean. For those of you who do not know the influences of these early shoegaze bands that I am talking about, I have some other references. Many of the vocals and synthesizing remind me of CHVRCHES and a combination of Ringo Deathstarr instrumentation. For me, I would rate this album at a 7.5. It is fairly run of the mill throughout every song, but it is definitely worth a listen.

Check out their new album: Grandfeathered. Available everywhere.