Thought I should share this review which I wrote of Yuragi's album from 2018. I also shared the album in the download section if you haven't listened to this yet. Highly recommended!

Luminous Orange are genius! Also, . . . . . . . . (dots) are a shoegaze idol group. Very underground. But they could turn into something.

I found out about Decay FM sometime this year and I love it! I haven't tuned into it a whole lot, but there are a ton of neat finds there~ They also have an app which is great if you want to listen to it on the go. I haven't heard of most of these blogs so thanks for sharing! The blog Shoegazer Alive seems especially cool since it focuses on other genres that I'm interested in. I don't have anything to share atm except for a blog called Muso Japan. It mostly contains reviews on Japanese shoegaze releases, but is really great if you're interested in receiving news on whatever is recent in Japan. They also air on Decay FM once in a while, mostly on a Wednesday.

Are y'all familiar with Decay FM? It's a web radio channel that focuses pretty much entirely on shoegaze/dreampop music from all over the world. Definitely worth keeping an eye on, as they play some cool shit from time to time! Check it out here . They sell their own merch as well. The blog Shoegazer Alive is also very useful to help one discover newer music within the genre. The blog doesn't SOLELY focus on shoegaze music (there's post-rock, post-punk and such as well, for instance) but there's a lot of cool and relatively unknown stuff to be found there. No direct dl links, just bandcamp shares. Check it out here! When The Sun Hits is another blog dedicated to promoting newer bands on the scene. They often share interviews, bandcamp links and such. Check it here! Another site that deals with shoegaze, post-rock and related artists from all over the world is Noise Artists. They share interviews, reviews, bandcamp links and other music-related articles. Check it here. Anyone else know any other cool sites like these? Don't hesitate to share!

I'm gonna shill a couple of bands as well. Not all of them are necessarily recent discoveries, but still recommended listening. The Earth Earth These guys have apparently been around since 2010. I've only heard their album 'Dead Matador's Funeral,' but it's a pretty fucking good one! These guys also do the male/female vocals thing. They were on the cruyff in the bedroom tribute album if my memory serves me right. The band was still active on bandcamp as late as 2015, but beyond that I have no idea what these guys have been up to or whether they're even still together at all. Check them out here: https://theearthearth.bandcamp.com Oeil A shoegaze band from Tokyo, apparently already around since 2006 or so. According to their own description, their sound's just as much influenced by obvious names such as MBV as by the new wave / darkwave genres. They're a male/female duo. Check them out here: https://oeil.bandcamp.com/ Taffy A shoegaze and britpop-influenced band that sings in English. Their music has been distributed in both the UK and Europe through Club AC30, and (if the internet isn't lying to me) they've been featured in some form in NME apparently?? They're a recent discovery of mine, I quite dig them. I think they've only released two full-length albums and not much else otherwise, but I could be wrong. Their album Nyctophilia came out this year. Check them out here: Honeydip Yet another relatively recent discovery of mine. They're one of the more old-school Japanese shoegaze bands, having formed in 1996. They went on to change their name to Sugarcoat in 2002, but ended up splitting up the next year. They released at least 2 or 3 full-length albums before splitting up. Check them out here:

Post your recent Japanese shoegaze discoveries here, whether they're old or new~ ^^ COLLAPSE - These guys a pretty recent and dropped a new single earlier this year. They may be another shoegaze band with sugary female vocals, but they sound good! CURSE/DROP by COLLAPSE 溶けない名前 (tokenai namae) - A neat little band with both female and male vocalists. This is an older song of theirs so the composition is a little rough but I love the young and sweet-sounding male vocals here, which you don't hear very often in Japanese shoegaze. It's quite unfortunate that he does more of the back vocals now, it seems. 雨の中の馬 (amenonakanouma) - This was a random find on soundcloud. The quality is pretty low and fuzzy, but that's shoegaze/noise and self-recorded music for you. It's a rather simple song but surprisingly pleasing at the same time. I love it.