I’ve always been extremely skeptical about any band that tried to live up to the melodic dreampop/shoegaze title even if they weren’t gunning for the number 1 spot. Slowdive had that approach mastered and I’ve considered them to be in a league of their own ever since I started deeply submerging into this sound.
There [...]

One of the greatest features of this site is that when one contributor (read: me) goes MIA, the other guys are there to pick up the slack. I haven’t shared anything for several months now, but I’m here to make it up to you by introducing you to your new favorite artist. In the past 2 years, Ulrich Schnauss has fast moved up my list of all-time favorites and clearly into the top 5. He is probably the only artist who I can listen to and be utterly blown away, every single time, regardless of my mood or how many times I’ve heard his record that given month/day/hour. When you’re as big a music fanatic as most of us here are, that really says a lot.

From the guy that was primarily responsible for the way Anathema’s Alternative 4 record came into being, comes the Ìon album. Patterson named his band after the Gaelic word for ‘pure’, after parting ways with Mick Moss in Antimatter to devote all of his efforts to his own band.
I’d heard about Ion for awhile, [...]

Sorry for the more-than-a-month absence, finding the required free time for a post is a challenge. I’m back with March’s only dark dose entry, but it’s one that deserves a month all to it’s own.

Lycia is a band friends and strangers have been telling me about for years. For whatever reason, I sometimes neglect to follow-up on music recommendations for years at a time.. and end up regretting it. Judging by the album “The Burning Circle and Then Dust” — which was originally released in 1995 — this is one of those times I regret my delay. The song I’m posting tonight is an incredible concoction of the ethereal weightiness of Fields of the Nephilim, the inescapable sorrow of Shape of Despair and the beautifully floating shoegaze of Slowdive. The moody atmosphere is as thick as it gets — melt into the melodic sea of hauntingly beautiful darkness that floats your way at 1:31.

Last May I wrote about Deleyaman after being tipped off to their existence by a dark dose reader. Several months later, while out on tour, Deleyaman mainman Aret Madil actually contacted me about the post and expressed interest in my band as well. Wow. This band continues to impress me on so many levels.

I previously wrote about Sonores and expressed my newfound fondness for their extremely minimalistic music. They released a self-titled EP in early 2006 which is now available in it’s entirety for free from the wonderful It’s a Trap blog. I highly recommend you give it a listen.

Here is a closer effort to focus on why I like the particular song contributed (darkdose mission), instead of getting distracted with band histories and discographies.

In my ears, ‘Heir to the Cosmic Seed’ follows the structure of a long journey. Whenever I play this song, I can experience the clear cut phases of travel in my mind. I can easily single out moments of pre-voyage anticipation and find feelings of curiosity.

When I was young, I would listen to the radio all day long, waiting to capture some song I liked onto cassette tape. In hindsight, I’m sure much of it was pop drivel, but I distinctly remember one song standing out; “Fade into You,” by Mazzy Star. The song was dark and hypnotic [...]

I like Pelican, but something about them irks me just a little bit. Maybe it’s the huge amount of undue credit they get in the media, the number of hipsters who have latched onto them, or how everyone seemed to know who they were overnight. The fact is, I really like them as [...]

Tenhi are one of those bands who I can consistently count on releasing album after album of top-tier dark music I will love. Their previous two albums, “Kauan” and “Väre” were masterpieces of beautiful and wildly creative neo-folk/rock (their EP’s are also every bit as good). My anticipation always rides high when I hear there [...]