Mew

Mew is a band from Denmark, with a musical style that is best described as a combination of indie rock and progressive rock (with shoegaze and dream pop influences).
The band consists of Jonas Bjerre (vocals), Bo Madsen (guitar), and Silas Utke Graae Jørgensen (drums). When on tour, Mew is supported by Dr. Nick Watts (Headswim) on keyboard, and Bastian Juel on bass.

Download: Frengers

And The Glass Handed Kites

Web: Myspace Page , Website

Ólafur Arnalds

Fragile, emotional, classical indie music would maybe be the best term to describe Ólafur Arnalds’ music. Combining classical instrumentation with an indierock aesthetic there are obvious comparisons to Sigur Rós, but Arnalds is sculpting his own epic, string-laden compositions.

Download:

- Variations Of Static

- Eulogy For Evolution

Web: Myspace Page

Logh

Logh is an indy rock band formed in 1998 in Lund, Sweden. Comprised of four members, their first LP was released in 2002 on Bad Taste Records, incorporating elements of indie rock and shoegaze with hushed vocals and introspective lyrics. The album was followed by two more, with lo-fi shoegazer elements, lightly brushed snares, subtle guitar strumming, and droning bass lines.

Download:

- North (2007)

- A Sunset Panorama (2005)

- The Raging Sun (2003)

- Every Time a Bell Rings an Angel Gets His Wings (2002)

Web: Myspace Page , Website

Bang Gang

Bang Gang is often the musical alias of songwriter/producer Barði Jóhannsson who formed the band and lives in Reykjavík.
In 1998, Bang Gang scored a hit in Europe with "So Alone?", winning airplay on MTV Europe and resulting in the release of the debut full-length, You.They have released 2 full-length albums, and at least 2 independent EPs and 7"s since 1998. The most recent release was 2003's Something Wrong. Bang Gang was named SPIN Band of the Day on May 24, 2007, and performed in the United States that year as well, in New York and at SXSW.

Download:

- Ghosts From The Past (2008)

- Something Wrong (2003)

- You (1998)

Web: Myspace Page , Website

July Skies

The sound of July Skies is about… lost youth, fractured memories of the 1970’s, pylons across fields, abandoned airfields, endless childhood summers, dappled sunlight through leaves, forgotten England, the romance of the heavens well after closing time, countryside, mornings in May, ruins, faded innocence, post-war Britain, skies of all seasons, trudging coastlines, Super8, Festival of Britain 1951, memories made with a Polaroid Landcam, Henry Moore, overgrown follies, East Anglia, time spent amongst long summer grasses, kissing under motorway bridges, grey English rain filled skies, concrete precincts and tower blocks, suburbia, better days ahead, the sound of children playing faraway, old Ordnance Survey maps, lost airmen, Orford Ness, rustic charm, John Nash, playgrounds of the city, Avebury, icy mornings and clear blue skies, poppy day, a half remembered smile, “There’s no comfort in this world”, 1960’s artwork by Harry Wingfield, John Berry, Martin Aitchinson, C F Tunnicliffe, Ronald Lampitt, BST, municipal parks at dusk, love, infatuation and loss

Download:

- The Weather Clock (2008)

- Where the Days Go (2006)

- The English Cold (2004)

- Dreaming Of Spires (2001)

- At The Height of Summer ep (2000)

Web: Myspace Page , Website

Isis

Isis is a Los Angeles, California-based band, founded in Boston, Massachusetts in 1997. They have borrowed from and helped to evolve a sound pioneered by the likes of Neurosis and Godflesh, creating heavy music consisting of lengthy songs that focus on repetition and evolution of structure. As such, a great range of musical labels are used to describe their sound, including avant-garde metal, post-metal and experimental rock.

Download:In the Absence of Truth

Oceanic

Panopticon

Web: Myspace Page , Website

Mugison

Mugison (or Örn Elías Guðmundsson) is an Icelandic musician and singer who usually performs as a one-man band using a guitar and computer. He studied in London to become a record producer.

In 2004 Mugison was recognized at the Icelandic Music Awards. His album, Mugimama Is This Monkey Music?, was named best album and his song Murr Murr was named best song.

Mugison got his nickname Mugison while on holiday visiting his father Muggi (Muggur) in Malaysia. His father is a Karaoke singer and as the crowds at the Karaoke bars in the small fishing villages they were touring had problems pronouncing his name they came to call him Mugison. Mugison is the Icelandic naming convention for the surname of someone who is the son of Muggi

Download: Little Trip

Web: Myspace Page , Website

Pelican

Pelican is a four-piece instrumental band from Chicago, Illinois who have since relocated to Los Angeles. The band is known for its dense combinations of different melodies and extended track lengths. Their distinctive sound draws from doom metal as well as post-rock and many other influences, making them exemplary proponents of post-metal. They are signed to Hydra Head Records, which is owned and operated by Aaron Turner of Isis. Larry Herweg, Trevor de Brauw, and Laurent Schroeder-Lebec also make up three-quarters of the band Tusk.

Download:

City of Echoes (2007)

Australasia (2003)

Pelican (2001)

Web: Myspace Page , Website

Maybeshewill

Maybeshewill are an instrumental band from Leicester, UK. Maybeshewill’s music is characterised by the use of electronic elements alongside more traditional ‘rock’ instrumentation. The band’s music is also littered with references to film and popular culture.

Download:

Not For Want Of Trying

Japanese Spy Transcript (EP)

Web: Myspace Page

Dredg

Dredg is a progressive alternative band from Los Gatos, California. Their first studio album, Leitmotif, was released by the Universal music label on September 11, 2001. Prior to that, it had been self-released by the members of the band. After the album hit music stores, dredg acquired an almost immediate cult following thanks to Leitmotif’s unique sound and concept. There has also been a movie planned for release as a music video for the entire album, though the project has been stalled. El Cielo, dredg’s proper Interscope debut, arrived in autumn 2002, and Deftones producer Terry Date was at the helm for their 2005 effort Catch Without Arms. A video for the single “Bug Eyes” was released. In the spring of 2006, dredg played on the Taste of Chaos tour. In November of 2006, dredg released “Live at the Fillmore.”

Download:

The Pariah The Parrot The Delusion (2009)

Catch Without Arms

El Cielo

Web: Myspace Page , Website

Sigur Rós

Sigur Rós is an icelandic slow-motion rock band (according to the band’s own definition) with post-rock and shoegaze elements. The name is derived from the name of lead vocalist Jónsi Birgisson’s little sister Sigurrós. According to their website, it is pronounced “si-ur rose”. They hail from the same creative and vibrant Icelandic music scene as múm and Amiina. They released their first ever foray into film-making with their tour documentary, Heima in late 2007.

Download:

We Play Endlessly

Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust

Hvarf-Heim

Takk

( )

Agaetis Byrjun

Von

Web: Myspace Page , Website

Frakkur

Cult of Luna

Cult of Luna is a Swedish sludge/post-metal band from Umeå. They formed from the remnants of a Umeå hardcore punk band called Eclipse in 1999. They slowly garnered critical appreciation and underground popularity with early releases Cult of Luna (2001) and The Beyond (2003); however, it is 2004's Salvation that can be considered their 'breakthrough' release. By cutting down on the somewhat esoteric use of aggression so indicative of doom, it appealed to a new group of fans. Its calmer sound has earned it favourable reviews in the mainstream music press, a reputation built upon for the release of Somewhere Along the Highway in 2006, another largely well-received album.

In August 2006, the band released a remake of "Marching to the Heartbeats" from Somewhere Along the Highway entitled "Heartbeats" solely on the internet community MySpace. The song was available for download for a few days and was later removed. The point was to see if the song would be kept alive by file sharing, and was also apparently a statement against the conservative music industry, says keyboardist Anders Teglund in an interview.

In April 2008, the band announced the upcoming release of their fifth album entitled Eternal Kingdom. It was released on June 16 in Europe followed by its release on July 8 in the United States.

Download:

Eternal Kingdom (2008)

Somewhere Along The Highway (2006)

The Beyond (2003)

Cult of Luna (2001)

Web: Myspace Page, Website

Broken Social Scene

Broken Social Scene are a Juno Award winning Canadian indie rock supergroup, a musical collective currently including nineteen members, formed in 1999 and debuted at the Wavelength Music + Arts Series in 2000 in Toronto, Ontario. All of its members currently play in various other groups and solo projects, mainly based around the city of Toronto. The group's sound could be considered a combination of all of its members' respective musical projects, and is usually identified as baroque pop. It is characterized by a very large number of sounds, grand orchestrations featuring guitars, horns, woodwinds, and violins, unusual song structures, and an experimental, and sometimes chaotic production style from David Newfeld.

Download:

- Broken Social Scene (2005)

- Bee Hives (2003)

- You Forgot It In People (2002)

- Feel Good Lost (2001)

Web: Myspace Page, Website

Explosions In The Sky

Explosions in the Sky is an American instrumental post-rock band from Texas. The band has garnered popularity beyond the post-rock scene for their cinematic, elaborately developed guitar work, narratively styled instrumentals, what they refer to as "cathartic mini-symphonies," and their enthusiastic and emotional live shows. They primarily play with three electric guitars and a set of drums, while band member Michael James will at times exchange his electric guitar for a bass guitar

Download:

- All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone

- The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place

- How Strange, Innocence

- Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever

- Travels in Constants, Volume 21: The Rescue




Web: Myspace Page, Website

Múm

Iceland’s múm made their live debut in the United States in July of 2002 to a sold-out house at New York City’s Knitting Factory. The advance buzz on the band came thanks to their second release, Finally We Are No One, issued on the British label FatCat. múm is a foursome that includes twin sisters who were still teenagers when they teamed with two longtime friends to form an ambient-music act that has been described as a “baroque-techno pop quartet” by Village Voice critic Piotr Orlov. Yet múm’s work has little of the mathematically symmetrical structure of traditional baroque melodies. Instead, their music is arcane, sometimes without a melody, and filled with computer clicks, whispers, and sounds from nature. Despite the eerie mood-sets of their songs, Rolling Stone music writer David Fricke still called them a “pop group, building a gorgeous, sturdy music from sweet and tender materials. It’s not that you can’t dance to the results; a warm shiver of pleasure just seems more appropriate.”

Download:

- Go Go Smear The Poison Ivy (2007)

- Summer Make Good (2005)

- Loksins erum við engin (Icelandic version of  Finally We Are No One)

- Finally We Are No One (2002)

- Yesterday Was Dramatic - Today Is OK (2000)

Web: Myspace Page, Website

Boards Of Canada

Boards of Canada is an electronic music duo from Scotland, composed of brothers Michael Sandison (b. 10 June 1969) and Marcus Eoin Sandison (b. 21 September 1970). They have released a number of works, most notably Music Has the Right to Children and Geogaddi, with little advertising and few interviews - like many of their label-mates on the pioneering electronic music label Warp.

Download: The Campfire Headphase

Web: Myspace Page, Website

Ride

The band formed in 1988 in Oxford, United Kingdom and officially broke up in 1996. During that time they received much critical acclaim, and though this never translated into the chart and financial success that they aimed for, for a short while it seemed that the band could prove themselves as defying the fate that befell lesser shoegazer bands. Since then, the band members have gone on to other projects:
- Andy Bell founded Hurricane #1 before becoming the bass player for Oasis.
- Mark Gardener released an album with The Animalhouse before touring with Goldrush and recording the solo album These Beautiful Ghosts.

Download: Going Blank Again

Web: Myspace Page, Website

My Bloody Valentine

My Bloody Valentine are an alternative rock band formed in Dublin, Ireland in 1984 and predominantly based in London. The founding members were guitarist/singer Kevin Shields and drummer Colm Ó Cíosóig. The band's lineup during their heyday also included singer-guitarist Bilinda Butcher and bassist Debbie Googe.

My Bloody Valentine's use of distortion, pitch bending, and digital reverb placed them as part of the shoegazing genre among other bands like Ride and Lush. Their 1991 album Loveless took two years to make due to funding problems, but once released it was critically acclaimed. Following Loveless, My Bloody Valentine became inactive, with Shields discarding several albums' worth of follow-up material. In 2007, Shields announced that the band had reunited and was recording new material.

Download: Loveless

Ecstasy And Wine By Parasign

Isn't Anything

You Made Me Realise (EP)

Web: Myspace Page, Website

Catherine Wheel

Catherine Wheel were a four-piece alternative rock band from Great Yarmouth, England. The band was active from 1990 to 2000, experiencing fluctuating levels of commercial success, and embarking on many lengthy tours.

Download:

-Wishville (2000)

-Adam and Eve (1997)

-Happy Days (1995)

-Chrome(1993)

-Ferment (1992)

-30 Century Man (1992)

Web: Myspace Page

Wonderland Falling Yesterday

Katsuhiko Maeda’s side project/alias Wonderland Falling Yesterday under which he released the album Enchanted Landscape Escape.
Katsuhiko Maeda also releases/has released music under the names World’s End Girlfriend and World’s End Boyfriend.

Download: Enchanted Landscape Escape

World's End Girlfriend

World's End Boyfriend

Efterklang

Efterklang (the Danish word for remembrance and reverberation) is a post-pop group formed on January 2001 in the Danish capital, Copenhagen. The group consists of five core members (Mads Brauer, Casper Clausen, Thomas Husmer, Rune Mølgaard & Rasmus Stolberg). When performing live, the core five-piece band is complemented with the addition of violinist/singer Peter Broderick, trombonist/singer Niklas Antonson, pianist/singer Anna Brønsted and guitarist/singer Frederik Teige.

Download:

- Tour EP

- Under Giant Trees (2007)


- Parades (2007)


- One Sided L.P. (2006)

- Tripper (2004)

- Springer (2003)

Web: Myspace Page, Website

M83

M83 is an electronic music group consisting of Anthony Gonzalez (and formerly Nicolas Fromageau), and was formed in Antibes, France in 2001. The musical style owes something to the shoegazing genre in its extensive use of reverb effects and lyrics spoken softly over loud instrumentals, though M83's songs employ considerably less guitar than most shoegazing bands such as My Bloody Valentine. For the third album released by M83, Before the Dawn Heals Us, Gonzalez decided to part from Fromageau (after an emotionally distressing tour for Dead Cities) and record mainly on his own, with the help of a few other musicians.

Download:

- Saturday = Youth

- Digital Shades Volume 1

- Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts

- Before The Dawn Heals Us

Web: Myspace Page, Website

The Album Leaf

The Album Leaf officially began in 1998 as the solo project of Jimmy LaValle, guitarist for San Diego, California-based post-rock band Tristeza. LaValle has also performed in several other San Diego-area bands, including The Crimson Curse, The Locust, and GoGoGo Airheart.

Download: An Orchestrated Rise To Fall

Web: Myspace Page, Website

World's End Girlfriend

World's End Girlfriend is the musical project of Katsuhiko Maeda. Placing the solo musician's music into one well-defined genre is difficult, as it blends elements of electronica and post-rock to create a unique style.

Download:

- Hurtbreak Wonderland

- Farewell Kingdom

- The Lie Lay Land

- Ending Story

- Sky Short Story

Web: Myspace Page, Website

World's End Boyfriend

Mono & World’s End Girlfriend

Wonderland Falling Yesterday

Yndi Halda

Yndi Halda are an indie-rock band from Canterbury, United Kingdom. ‘Yndi Halda’ is Old Norse for “Enjoy Eternal Bliss”, also the name of their “self-titled” debut. The band’s music is characterized by expansive, cinematic pieces that have seen the group compared to modern classical and post rock - however, Yndi Halda’s work is usually considered more thematically optimistic or hopeful, and more song-based than artists of those genres.

Download:

- Enjoy Eternal Bliss

- Awake! Awoke! This Heavy Gloom

Web: Myspace Page, Website

Galaxie 500

Galaxie 500 formed in Boston, MA in 1986 and comprised of vocalist/guitarist Dean Wareham (a transplanted New Zealand native), bassist Naomi Yang and drummer Damon Krukowski, longtime friends who first met in high school in New York City before all three attended Harvard University. Wareham and Krukowski initially teamed in the short-lived Speedy and the Castanets, which split after their bass player experienced a religious conversion; upon re-forming, the duo recruited Yang to play bass, although she had no prior musical experience.

Download:

This Is Our Music (1990)

On Fire (1989)


Today (1988)

Web: Myspace Page

Parachutes

Parachutes (based in Reykjavik, Iceland) is the music of Alex Somers and Scott Alario, taking their name from the seeds of a dandelion flower.
ex and Scott play lots of different toys and instruments and often sample objects from around the house. Their music develops organically, with layers of acoustic instruments, old marching drums and gentle, hushed vocals.
The pair have finished two albums to date, both self-released, in handmade packaging. They are currently in Reykjavik making a new album and plan to release it (through Moss Stories) in 2008.

Download:

- Tour Ep

- Parachutes Demo

Web: Myspace Page

Flying Saucer Attack

Flying Saucer Attack was formed in Bristol, England in 1992. David Pearce was the core member of the group, and Rachel Brook (of Movietone, another Bristol band) was a member for most of the band’s lifetime.

The band were marked by quiet vocals and sheets of feedback with similarities to contemporary shoegazing bands, or The Jesus and Mary Chain. FSA were able to create a small but enthusiastic fanbase as one of the more remarkable experimental rock bands of the day. The band were notable for recording most of their output at home into a normal home stereo system, avoiding recording studios as much as they could. This gave their music a DIY feel and gave them the freedom to experiment as much as they wanted

Download:

Sally Free and Easy (1996)

Further (1995)

Distance (1994)

Wish (1993)

Web: Myspace Page

iLiKETRAiNS

iLiKETRAiNS are apost-rock band from Leeds, England. Their songs are composed of expansive orchestral and guitar-based sounds. They are signed to Beggars Banquet Records, though their debut EP, "Progress Reform", was released on Fierce Panda Records in June, 2006. iLiKETRAiNS' first studio album, Elegies to Lessons Learnt, was recently released through Beggars Banquet on 1 October, 2007. The band also run a night at The Brudenell Social Club in Leeds called Signal Failure.

On 7 April, 2007, they featured on the early-hours music television programme The JD Set, which featured live performance clips and interviews. David Martin talked about how he wanted their music to have a "sense of location" and that this was lacking in music like "Godspeed and Sigur Rós".

They work on concept albums which are also optically represented on stage, by means of video projections and the band's actual image (the mournings on their arms for example). The songs on the Elegies to Lessons Learnt are based on tragic historical events and figures and the songs were created after thorough research and study.

Download:

The Christmas Tree Ship EP

Elegies To Lessons Learnt

Progress Reform

Web: Myspace Page, Website

Pornopop

Pornopop merge the inventiveness of Kid A-era with a distinctly northern sound both comforting and lonely like a cold breath on the back of your neck. Brothers Agust and Petur Einarsson of Pornopop have made the next essential record to come out of Iceland.

Download:

- And The Slow Songs About The Dead Calm In Your Arms (2006)

- Blue (1997)

Web: Myspace Page, Website

Slowblow

Slowblow is an Icelandic musical duo consisting of Orri Jónsson and Dagur Kári Pétursson. Their music is an aesthetic of home-made, lo-fi analog tinkerings, which often slips into both electronic and folksy terrain. They started recording in the mid 1990s and have several albums to their credit. They created the soundtrack for the successful independent Icelandic movie Nói Albínói, which Dagur directed, and have worked with other Icelandic artists such as former Múm band member Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir. They have released albums under the Reykjavík based record labels Smekkleysa, Kitchen Motors, and Mobile / Plug.

Download:

- Noi Albinoi (2004)

- Slowblow (2004)

- Fousque (1996)

- Quicksilver Tuna (1994)

Web: Myspace Page

Holy Fuck

Holy Fuck is an experimental rock band from Toronto, Canada. They are a part of Dependent Music, a music label and artist collective that began in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia in 1994.

The band uses live instrumentation and miscellaneous instruments and non-instruments (including a 35 mm film sequencer, toy keyboards and toy phaser guns) to achieve electronic-sounding effects without the use of laptops or programmed backing tracks. According to Pitchfork Media, "The band was formed with the intent of creating the equivalent of modern electronic music without actually using the techniques—looping, splicing, programming and the like—of that music.

Download:

LP (2007)

Holy Fuck (2005)

Web: Myspace Page, Website

God Is An Astronaut

God Is an Astronaut are an instrumental three piece hailing from the Glen of the Downs, Co. Wicklow, Ireland. They formed in 2002 and released their debut album The End of the Beginning (2002) on their own Revive Records label. Their two music videos for The End of the Beginning and From Dust to the Beyond, received airplay on MTV UK and on other MTV European networks.
All Is Violent, All Is Bright (2005) is the band's second album. The album features their build ups from serene ambience to searing intensity and is a closer representation of their live sound. The single Fragile from the album has also received plays on MTV2 UK's 120 minute show and MTV's "The Comedown" show.
God Is an Astronaut released an EP called A Moment of Stillness in 2006.
Their third album, Far from Refuge, was released in April 2007 on Revive Records

Download:

God Is An Astronaut (2008)

Far From Refuge (2007)

A Moment Of Stillness (2006)

All Is Violent All Is Bright (2005)

The End of the Beginning (2002)

Web: Myspace Page, Website

Seabear

Seabear is an Icelandic indie-folk band from Reykjavik, Iceland. Although hailing from Iceland, they sing primarily in English. As of November 9th, 2007, the band's MySpace page lists the participating members as: Sindri, Örn Ingi, Guggý, Inga, Kjartan, Dóri, and Sóley. They are signed to the Morr Music record label.

Download:

The Ghost That Carried Us Away (2007)

Singing Arc / Self-Released EP (2004)

Web: Myspace Page, Website

Amiina

Amiina is a string quartet: María Huld Markan (violin), Hildur Ársælsdóttir (violin), Edda Rún Ólafsdóttir (viola) and Sólrún Sumarliðadóttir (cello). The group makes music with a great number of instruments - synth, piano, electric and baroque guitar, celtic harp, harmonium, melodica, celesta, glockenspiel, gideon harp, call bells (also called “office” or “reception” bells), glass harp, kalimba, mandolin, and musical saw played with a bow.

Download:

Kurr (2007)

Animamina (2005)

Web: MySpace Page, Website

Pillow

Italian band Pillow is a solo project of Giardini di Mirò’s keyboardist Luca di Mira. He released album Flowing Seasons under 2nd rec.

Download: Flowing Seasons

Web: Myspace Page, Website