Tag: albums/eps

[album] Mareux – Nonstop Romance

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Nonstop Romance by Mareux is a deeply romantic, synth-driven record that marries darkwave grit with emotional melodrama. It’s atmospheric, cinematic, and unflinchingly earnest, an intimate journey through both glamour and shadows.

Its approach to romance, dark, lush, and immersive, echoes the mood and intensity of the best work by Robert Alfons (TR/ST), though Mareux brings a warmer, more analogue edge. Like Alfons, he channels passionate darkness through synth nostalgia, yet infuses it with his own atmospheric and emotionally raw essence.

The record also features some of the finest singles in Mareux’s discography: songs that distil his signature sound into its most memorable and immediate form. “Laugh Now Cry Later,” “Wild at Heart,” and “Ébène Fumé”—the latter featuring brilliant Riki—are destined to linger in listeners’ minds long after the record stops spinning.

Each track feels like a vignette from an untold film, pulling the listener into a world where love is at once intoxicating and dangerous. The songs embrace a simple, minimal structure, yet they’re crafted with such precision and polish that they become utterly irresistible. When executed with this level of skill, minimalism can be as seductive and memorable as the most elaborate productions.

Listen below and purchase the album here.

[ep] Flooding – object 1

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Flooding’s object 1, released last month, is a sharp, compact EP that distils the band’s knack for contrast into four tightly constructed noise rock songs.

Across its 17 minutes, delicate, ethereal vocals are set against bursts of drone-heavy intensity, mixing the fragility of slowcore with the bite of loud, antagonistic post-hardcore sound.

The mini-album feels like walking alone down a dark street at midnight, with every shadow alive with threat, yet the quiet wraps you in a strange warmth. Fear lingers at the edges, but you find yourself savouring it, as if the darkness has claimed you and made you feel at home.

Stream below and buy the release here.

[album] BIG|BRAVE – OST

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BIG|BRAVE’s OST marks a bold new chapter in their career — it sounds like nothing they’ve ever done before. Presented as a score for a non-existent film, it’s a fearless reinvention and their most adventurous, unpredictable work yet — a visceral experience that gets under your skin and refuses to let go.

Created entirely without pre-written material, the record leans heavily on raw improvisation, capturing spontaneous bursts of creativity and unfiltered emotion. It definitely has the group’s DNA in every song, though, with all the heaviness and fantastic instrumentation, but this time it’s more minimal, weirder, noisier and scarier.

To enhance the setting even further, the band also created their own “The Instrument”, built from piano strings attached to a piece of wood. It became a defining voice in the album’s soundscape, weaving throughout and adding to the overall hallucinatory experience, where each track twists and shifts erratically, creating a sense of unease that lingers long after the music stops.

Stream below and purchase the album here.

[album] Anika – Abyss

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With Abyss, Berlin-based Anika—long revered for dubby synthscapes and slow, haunting songs—slams on the brakes and pulls a sharp left turn into rougher, grungier terrain. Full of guitars and propulsive rhythms, the result is a seamless transformation that redefines the artist without losing what made her music magnetic in the first place.

Lyrically and thematically, the album explores society’s turbulence alongside deeply personal reflections. Appropriately named, it takes us to the rock bottom of the current political landscape and serves as a call to arms to make a change. The raw, visceral production combined with Anika’s one-of-a-kind vocals set the combative tone for the 10-track journey, which demands your attention and barely allows you to breathe.

Abyss isn’t just about rage and noise, though—it’s about what comes after. In letting the vulnerability shine through at the end with “Buttercups” (funnily enough, after the track titled “Last Song”), the record closes with the chaos tempered by clarity, violence softened by the longing for something better for us all.

Listen below and buy the record here, out now via Sacred Bones Records.

[album] Peter Bibby – Drama King

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Perth misfit Peter Bibby presents Drama King, an exceptional new LP full of his firm raw, unfiltered storytelling and idiosyncratic musical style. It is a powerful and dynamic display of his sound and a true reflection of his musical roots.

Produced by Dan Luscombe (The Drones, Amyl and the Sniffers) and mixed with Josh Block of White Denim, the record is filled with intense guitar riffs, driving basslines, and one-of-a-kind dark hilarity, creating an exceptional and energetic atmosphere that might appeal to fans of rock music from any spectrum.

Though the creation of Drama King was relatively smooth, its lyrics illustrate Bibby’s transformation from a hard-partying prankster to a more enlightened, responsible individual who now understands his limits. He masterfully balances pain, humour and heartbreak, often within the same song, making it a compelling listen for those who appreciate music with a strong narrative drive.

Stream below and buy the album here.