The South London six-piece – Ike Gray (vocals/guitar), Will McCrossan (keys/drum machine), Tom Rogers-Coltman (guitar/saxophone), Ronnie Longfellow (bass), Emily Hubbard (cornet/synth) and Wilf Cartwright (drums/cello) – describe Tapir! as a ‘boiling together’ of different mediums: at once musical, theatrical, mythological, artistic, collaborative, narrative-led and, above all, something to be enjoyed and shared. The Pilgrim, Their God and the King of My Decrepit Mountain, their first album, follows a three-act structure – released by Heavenly Recordings as three four-track EPs (Acts I and II in 2023, Act III early 2024) – telling the story of a solitary traveller, an ambiguous red creature known as The Pilgrim, on a journey across a mythical landscape. Prior to the pandemic, Gray and McCrossan had been putting on ultra-inclusive, ultra-informal poetry nights, creating comical videos and promoting gigs as part of the Brixton art collective My Life is Big. The platform had likewise motivated the pair to form Tapir! in 2019. Having brought Rogers-Coltman and Longfellow on-board during the pandemic (Hubbard and Cartwright would join later, in the summer of 2022), Tapir! released their debut single My God in February 2022. When Honeyglaze drummer Yuri Shibuichi saw Tapir! live at the venue, he encouraged them to record their songs, and the band stress it was his enthusiasm that led them to take the project more seriously. Shibuichi’s playful, carefree production (always urging the band not to overthink) perfectly suits Tapir!’s unassuming, handmade, DIY nature.

Human Colonies are: Giuseppe Mazzoni, Sara Telesca, Andrea Guardabascio and Zannunzio. Born in Bologna in 2013 and currently based between Valtellina and Mantua, Human Colonies is a shoegaze/noisepop band. Since the very beginning, they played with shoegazey sounds and post-punkesque lyrics, resulting in a s/t short demo [2013]. After performing several live gigs throughout Italy, they recorded a bunch of new songs at VDSS Recording Studio run by Filippo Strang. That’s how Big Domino Vortex (2017, MiaCameretta Records/Lady Sometimes Records) came to life. It’s a journey back to 90s indie lo-fi dirty sounds filled with drowned lyrics. Their first full-lenght album Midnight Screamer (2018, MiaCameretta Records/Lady Sometimes Records) shows off since the very beginning how to perfectly balance some shiny catchy melodies with a rather coarse, tough background. Its cover art was drawn by Travis Millard (Dinosaur Jr., Primus, Get Up Kids). Real 90s fans will be captured by the overall atmosphere reminding of Dinosaur Jr., Rodan and more. In November 2019 Human Colonies published a new EP Cloudchaser and Old Songs (again on MiaCameretta Records/Lady Sometimes Records).
On September 22nd Human Colonies second album, Kintsukuroi was out on Custom Made Music / Shore Dive Records / Waddafuzz Records.

Echo Ladies are Matilda Bogren, Mattis Andersson and Joar Andersén, three school-friends who, after playing together in a few different bands, realised that they worked best on their own. In 2014, after looking for “a name that represented our sound”, they became Echo Ladies, partly inspired by the name of the drum machine from another of their favourite bands, Echo & The Bunnymen. With the luxury of developing the music over several years, their second album Lillies is built on the same foundation that Echo Ladies laid during their past releases, but with a more unyielding presence—though you still find clear inspiration from shoegaze greats Jesus and the Mary Chain, A Place To Bury Strangers, Slowdive, and many more. Echo Ladies have always tried to balance juxtaposing emotions on their songs, but commenting on the new album they say: “While our past material conveyed feelings of nostalgia and hope for the future mixed with worries and anxieties about defining who you are and what you will become, Lillies instead tries to balance the emotions of sorrow and loneliness, with anger, frustration, and the determination to make a change for the better. This album really carries the Echo Ladies mantra that ‘Nothing Ever Lasts’—good things can come to an end, but bad things will also pass.”. Their debut album Pink Noise was out in 2018 on Sonic Cathedral and was one of Rough Trade’s albums of the year. Their second album, Lillies, recorded and mastered by Joakim Lindberg at Studio Sickan in Malmö, was released on 8th September 2023 via Rama Lama Records / Gazehop Records.

Maud Anyways was formed by French musician Maud Platiau-Bourret as a solo project in march 2021. She started by making songs on her own which quickly had some recognition and was played on indie pop radio shows. With the help of Casper Blond, a very talented multi intrumenalist young man from Denmark who also did the drums, additional guitars and bass, backing vocals, mixed and mastered her debut album, she managed to achieve a 9 tracks LP with shoegaze indie pop sounds. “I started music on my own only 3 years ago” she reckons “Before that I was a bassist in a post-rock band for 2 and a half years. We stopped rehearsals because of COVID and I was so frustrated that I started composing my own songs playing almost every instruments. Then Shore Dive Records contacted me; I wasn’t even looking for a label as I didn’t even dare dreaming of releasing my own LP. Since I had a lot of songs I had first thought about an EP which is quite logical for beginners, but with the help of Casper, and with the value he brought to my songs, the idea of an album imposed itself. He also made some backing vocals on two tracks, and I have the privilege of having Thierry Haliniak from My Raining Stars doing some backing vocals on one of the tracks“. Impermanent Lane is out today, September 27th, on Brighton’s Shore Drive Records.