Loveblind

This 5xCD box set from Cherry Red offers a compelling look at shoegaze's prime era. Still in a Dream takes a wide trawl approach to its genre, which has upsides and downsides. As with Rhino’s goth box A Life Less Lived, shoegaze is generously interpreted to include antecedents and formative influences, which bulks up the quality.

Virginia heavy rockers VALKYRIE return with their anthemic, riff-driven new album, Fear! Their first new album in 5 years, Fear finds VALKYRIE sounding more progressive and diverse than ever before. Tracks such as "Feeling So Low", "The Choice", and "Evil Eye" showcase VALKYRIE expanding their sound, infusing their take on classic hard rock with a penchant for remarkable melodies and creative hooks. Recorded at Earth Analog in Illinois, Fear showcases the tone-rich, organic songwriting process VALKYRIE honed in on over the course of their career. A warm analog sound permeates throughout each of the album's 8 tracks, as blistering twin leads, soaring guitar harmonies by Pete and Jake Adams, poignant lyrics, and a relentless rhythm section result in a highly textured and timeless collection of heavy rock. With Fear, VALKYRIE take the next step in their evolution as one of the most creative and dynamic forces in the hard rock scene today.

Dieter Mieir can’t be accused of rushing things. In spite of enormous success as vocalist with the legendary Yello, he released his debut solo album at the age of 69. The 12-track longplayer sounds like a magical sound-alchemy made of Chanson, Electro and Dub. Realised with various musicians and producers including Thomas Wydler (drummer in Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds), Nackt (producer for Mute recording artist Apparat), Ben Lauber (producer, synthesizer), Ephrem Lchinger (piano), Tobias Preisig (violine), Nicolas Rttimann (guitar), and electropunk pioneer & producer T. Raumschmiere aka Marco Haas.