I don’t know why I didn’t think of this earlier but here I made a Spotify collaboration list! The only rules are 1) don’t remove somebody else’s song and 2) don’t spam-add songs.

Really didn’t know how to word this. All I know is that I’ve been completely in love with The Shelter of My Love by Astropol. I’m looking for some more alternative, dream-like, cinematic, emotionally intense songs. Songs that make you have flashbacks of things you never experienced. Songs that make you lose yourself before the voice of the artist jolts you awake. Songs that sound like how perpetual fogs and inevitable spirals feel.

I’m not sure what to call this specific genre, either. What the hell is shoegaze, anyway?

  • gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world
    121·
    2 months ago

    You might dig No Joy, Lush, Cindy Lee, the Cocteau Twins and My Bloody Valentine

    What the hell is shoegaze, anyway?

    Ask four different people and you’ll get four different answers, but the term first started to get thrown at bands as an insult around the late 80s in the UK because guitarists in certain alternative bands would be using so many different effects during their performances they’d spend the whole show staring at their pedalboards (I think a review of a My Bloody Valentine show in particular is where the term got coined)

    • ganymede@lemmy.ml
      4·
      2 months ago

      100% shoegaze fits the bill perfectly for OPs request. i’d add slowdive to that list

      there’s some great, highly independent shoegaze on yt

      also, some Dandy Warhols & Brian Jonestown probably fits the bill, eg. this track

  • Wild Bill@midwest.socialOP
    10·
    2 months ago

    Don’t mistake my silence for negligence, y’all; keep the recommendations going and I’ll give them all a listen eventually.

  • jeffreyosborne@lemm.ee
    4·
    2 months ago

    Some type of skin by AURORA.

    Not totally sure it fits your description, but it’s hella intense and I love it.

    • choss@lemmy.ml
      1·
      2 months ago

      Had the strangest sensation while listening to this. Right at 56s I was hit with the taste of watermelon taffy. No clue why

  • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
    51·
    2 months ago

    Air is an excellent band that seems to fit your bill and if you don’t mind a darker dream there’s always the OG of shoegaze Portishead.

    I have strong music association with memories so most of my feelie invoking music is pretty fucking random (like associating wanderlust with Beck’s Guero).

  • Mesa@programming.dev
    4·
    2 months ago

    If you don’t have a particular need for lyrics, or lyrics that you can understand (presumably), I’ve got a few for you.

    Nyokabi Kariũki - Nazama | (Bandcamp) > YT Link

    Aivi & Surasshu - Mika | (Bandcamp) > YT Link

    The following is a very short performance for a promotional video for the Lumatone keyboard, but I have it saved in my playlist because of how beautiful it is.

    Lumatone performance (YT Link)

    I think it demonstrates the vastness of the musical realm by splitting the notes we typically associate with western music into different (and often more numerous) divisions of the octave. One of the best applications of this besides getting that ethereal feeling is that it allows you to explore intervals to a finer degree i.e. achieve cleaner melodic and harmonic tones that are mathematically pleasing to the human ear and mind. This whole concept is called microtonality if anyone is interested. And to your question, OP, I think searching in this area can help you find some of that cosmic, alternative sound you’re looking for.

    I know I got a little bit away from the question here, but getting into the microtonal/xenharmonic realm was so magical for me because while I enjoy your typical music theory teachings, I’m very much on the more scientific side of things, and music has always been that intriguing intersection between the indiscriminate and cosmic nature of mathematics and the emotional and beautifully flawed nature of artistic expression. Finding the community and literature around xenharmonic music helped me find my way of exploring music in a way that comes naturally to me.

    Edit: One that’s a little more “energetic” that I always get lost in. The entire album is great, but this track in particular - Homestuck: Medium - Frogs (YT Link)

    • choss@lemmy.ml
      2·
      2 months ago

      Oh my GOODNESS I want a Lumatone so badly! I thought I had invented isomorphic keyboards one day in the shower, but when I searched my idea up I learned that people have been clever long before me

      • Mesa@programming.dev
        2·
        2 months ago

        It’s such a great concept and the lumatone is beautiful execution. Hopefully I can start saving for one sometime this decade.

  • choss@lemmy.ml
    4·
    2 months ago

    Hey thanks for the suggestion! I really dig that song!

    I think TTRRUUCES - Sensations of Cool (youtube links incoming) hits this prompt pretty perfectly, especially the dream-like quality of the video

    Same for Jon Worthy - Please Tell Me

    A few more that are close but not quite perfect:

    TTRRUUCES - TTRRUUCES

    Hiatus Kaiyote - Red Room

    Hiatus Kaiyote - And We Go Gentle

    Robotaki - All I Can Do

    I’m looking forward to listening to the other suggestions, I’ve listened to a few of them and so far they’ve been great!

  • OhStopYellingAtMe@lemmy.world
    3·
    2 months ago

    “Reckoner” - Radiohead
    “Walking in My Shoes” - Depeche Mode
    “Bloodbuzz Ohio” - The National
    “Black” - Pearl Jam
    “Glory Box” - Portishead
    “Unfinished Sympathy” - Massive Attack

    • neidu2@feddit.nl
      3·
      2 months ago

      Portishead - Glorybox
      I’m not sure what, but that song conjured untold emotions in me for the entirety of 2003

      While it’s certainly energetic, I think the type of energy is vastly different from what OP is after

  • selokichtli@lemmy.ml
    2·
    2 months ago

    I concur with those Beach House suggestions and add maybe EMA, Slowdive and possibly Cocteau Twins and Piano Magic. Maybe even the work of Brian Eno in Another Green World?

    Oh, and by the way, “shoegaze” is nothing more than a journalistic name to group all bands in the popular musical scene that made a heavy use of pedals to distort or generally modify their guitar sound. They spent so much time watching at their pedals in contrast of earlier guitar players, that they looked like they were gazing at their shoes.