Discoverer 109: new indie findings

Here comes the first trio of discoveries of 2015! We are back in full, overpowered mode, so get ready, you have been warned!

Pinkshinyultrablast. New year, new exciting proposals from Shelflife, folks. This time coming from Saint Petersburg, Russia, here's a quintet formed in 2007, but their only release to date didn't arrive until 2009, in the form of EP 'Happy Songs For Happy Zombies', out via Odd Box Records. Luckily, the combo is alive and kicking, as the debut album 'Everything Else Matters',   available since last week through Shelflife and ClubAC30 majestically proves. Gold shoegaze for shoegazing addicts, echoing Lush, Slowdive, Sabres of Paradise but also adding hints of dream-pop, the icy, otherworldly spirit of Cocteau Twins (get haunted by Lyubov's voice) and glimpses of electronic. Indeed, an ultrablast.

Wildhoney. More lighting floating in space, now thanks to this band, another quintet, hailing from Baltimore, Maryland and formed in 2011. After first demos surfaced the blogosphere in 2012, their s/t debut EP arrived a year later, followed in 2014 by another EP, 'Seventeen Forever'. And now they are back with 'Sleep Through It', debut album out now via Deranged/Forward Records. Shoegaze with a million faces, at times raw and noisy, others poppier and gentle, here's the aggression and the caress, the urgency and the atmosphere, the haze and the light. Very hard to resist.

Viet Cong. A hype with a reason. Hailing from Calgary, Alberta, this Canadian band formed in 2012 from the ashes of the troubled group Women. Bassist Matt Flegel started a new project with Scott 'Monty' Munro, live guitarist for Chad Van Gaalen, quickly expanding into a quartet with drummer Mike Wallace and guitarist Daniel Christiansen. Their debut came a year later with a self-released cassette, reissued by Mexican Summer on vinyl past summer. They signed with Jagjaguwar, who along with Flemish Eye has just released the highly anticipated s/t first album. Seven fierce, angular, gloomy and elusive tunes of post-punk. A beast that we will have the chance to see live at Primavera Sound.