After having visited many different territories, Joe Moore is back with a dream-pop, shoegazing, folk-pop album with certain crooner touches, where melodic elegance, the most profound relaxation, and romanticism are all back in full force. This new effort is being released under the name SUNLIT, and it is new proof that there is no musical ground that Joe Moore can’t inhabit, with marvelous creativity and tremendous results.
The amount and diversity of the albums he has released and produced for Elefant Records since 2011 is unparalleled. Everything started with The Yearning’s Jukebox Romance (2012), a wonderful chamber pop record, reminiscent of those girl groups from the 50s. Since then, he has made music with Lia Pamina; he has produced R’n’B and electronic pop for Maddie Mae; and he has written eighties-style Italo Disco and europop with Cristina Quesada. He has also collaborated with Julie Big (ex-singer from Le Superhomard) on the Julie Et Joe project, with which he paid a well-deserved tribute to 80s French pop (Elli Et Jacno, Lio, Mikado…). He explored electronic pop with Holly Vanags under the name The Perfect Kiss, and, together with Luci Ashbourne, paid tribute to Abba, to disco music, and 70s pop in general on his last album with The Yearning.
With this new project Joe steps into a new space that he has never entered before, and this time he sings the songs himself. Swimming through seas of dream pop, influenced by groups like Cocteau Twins, Julee Cruise, Chris Isaak, The Stone Roses, Lee Hazlewood, Alvvays, Beach House and Cowboy Junkies, Joe Moore gives us something beautiful and captivating that is characterized by the austerity of its arrangements, exactly the opposite of The Yearning, and the perfection of the melodies. He takes on all the vocals, and with a few guitars, bass, drums, and the occasional keyboard, he fills songs that take us to a place somewhere between Richard Hawley and Mazzy Star.
Sunlit will be out tomorrow, March 8 2024, on Elefant Records.

The BV’s are a band from Augsburg, Germany. Their bittersweet, looping, disintegrating mix of indie pop, shoegaze and krautrock came together by chance in the cascading granite greys of a wet English winter in 2016, when Fred moved from Augsburg in Germany to Cornwall in the UK for a University exchange programme and moved in with Josh. After living together for four months, they decided to record some demos for fun, which later became their first album, Speaking From A Distance, released in 2017 on German label Kleine Untergrund Schallplatten. After Fred moved back to Augsburg, The BV’s continued to make music over the internet, releasing an EP and a second album with Kleine Untergrund Schallplatten (Cartography, 2019), as well as singles with Cloudberry Records (USA), Shiny Happy Records (Indonesia) and Melotron Recordings (Greece). They also toured extensively in Europe and the UK, including appearances at Indietracks and Madrid Popfest. In 2022, Josh moved from the UK to Augsburg. With the band now finally all living in the same city, the bv’s have spent the last year recording their third album, Taking Pictures Of Taking Pictures, which was released on 16^th February by Kleine Untergrund Schallplatten and Shelflife Records.

Black Tail is an indie rock band from Rome and Latina (Italy): Cristiano Pizzuti (Voice, Guitar, Synths), Simone Sicamanna (Guitar), Cristina Marcelli (Bass) and Roberto Bonfanti (Drums). The idea, and the name of the project, came out of a walk in the woods right outside Boston in 2013. A close encounter with a black-tailed deer, and a bunch of songs written while traveling. One of the songs is a demo recorded with a small portable device in Back Bay, dedicated to Elliott Smith, and presented during a short acoustic set on national radio station Radio Rai1. Three records (Springtime, 2015, One Day We Drove Out Of Town, 2017 and You Can Dream It In Reverse, 2020) released for the indie labels Mia Cameretta and Lady Sometimes, filled with indie-americana, jangle textures, and dreamy guitar arpeggios. The soundscape interlaces and changes, from sunny ballads to a shadowy restlessness. The musical vocabulary is influenced by Wilco, Sparklehorse, Teenage Fanclub, Yo La Tengo, Elliott Smith, all mixed up in an eclectic ecosystem made of handmade drawings and indie rock songs, slight folk roots and a rather lo-fi slackerish attitude. A personal narration of secluded worlds and introspective gazes. Wide Awake on Beds of Golden Dreams, which was recorded at VDSS Recording Studio by Filippo Passamonti between Dec 2022 and Sept 2023, is the band’s fourth full length and will be out on February 23rd (MiaCameretta Records).

The Fauns were formed in 2007 in Bristol and consists of Alison Garner (vocals), Will Slater (guitar), Michael Savage (bass) and Guy Rhys-Davies (drums). Their their eponymous debut album was released in 2009, followed by the 2013 release of Lights. These two works garnered warm acclaim from both critics and fervent shoegaze-loving fanbase alike – arriving into an atmosphere rekindled by the return of My Bloody Valentine.
Throughout the 2010s, the band toured relentlessly across Europe, sharing the stage with Creation label act The Telescopes for a number of shows. A European support tour with French doomgazers Alcest broadened The Fauns’ reach, and during this period they recorded sessions for BBC Radio 6 Music and XFM, even winning Steve Lamacq’s coveted rebel playlist accolade. The creation of their third album How Lost unfolded gradually over the subsequent years, led by three original members: Michael Savage, Alison Garner, and Guy Rhys Davies. In 2019, accomplished soundtrack composer Will Slater joined the band, catalyzing an intensified period of songwriting. The push and pull between Savage and Slater’s recording styles producing interesting and unique results. This latest album bridges The Fauns’ transformation from their earlier incarnation to their current evolution. The tracks traverse a spectrum of styles, ranging from intricate, guitar-driven sci-fi fantasies to industrial-tinged new wave compositions. The hallmark shoegaze elements are now stretched over gritty pulsating electro beats.