EKHO Sonic Chill #5

Baxter were a Stockholm, Sweden trio formed in 1996 by producers Ricky Tillblad and Carl Herlofsson with vocalist Nino Ramsby, blending drum-and-bass rhythms with emotive songwriting for their self-titled 1998 debut. That album, which AllMusic rated four out of five stars, is where 'Love Again' appears. All three members brought real scene credentials to the project: Tillblad founded Stockholm's DubDeck club, Ramsby had previously fronted the Swedish band Salt, and Herlofsson headed the indie label Primal Music. The group released two further albums, About This (2002) and Tell Me Like It Is (2010), the latter being their most recent release.

Mono were a London trip hop duo of vocalist Siobhan de Mare and keyboardist/producer Martin Virgo, who met in 1996 and built a sound around 1960s spy-film soundtracks and orchestral pop that stood apart from the darker trip hop of the era. 'The Outsider,' from their only album Formica Blues (1997), is built around a hammered dulcimer part played by Geoff Smith, a distinctive touch for the genre. Their song 'Life in Mono' later became the most-requested track on US radio stations after appearing in the 1998 film Great Expectations, pushing the band to a #70 Billboard Hot 100 placement and their only tour, 21 dates across North America and Europe. De Mare is the daughter of Shadows drummer Tony Meehan and Virgo trained classically at London's Guildhall School of Music. After Mono split in 2000, de Mare joined Violet Indiana and Virgo moved into film and television composing.

Beacon are a Brooklyn duo -- vocalist/lyricist Thomas Mullarney III and producer Jacob Gossett -- who met as students at Pratt Institute and formed the band in 2011, building a hushed, minimalist downtempo sound from there. 'Into the Night' comes from their debut For Now EP, released via Ghostly International in October 2012, after the pair had been self-releasing their first singles on Bandcamp. They have toured alongside artists like Tycho, Gold Panda and Oneohtrix Point Never, and in 2020 Apple featured their track 'Show Me How' in a MacBook Pro launch event. Their fifth album, How drie a Cinder, came out in August 2026.

sweet93 is the shoegaze project of New York-based singer-songwriter Chloe Kohanski, who writes and records with Ohio-based producer Evan Boutte across long distance. Before sweet93, Kohanski won Season 13 of NBC's The Voice in 2017, then deliberately stepped back from the mainstream machine to make something more personal, drawing on 1990s touchstones like Slowdive and Radiohead -- the '93' in the name refers to her birth year, 1993, which she calls 'the year for albums.' 'what's true?', released in October 2024 as her first single of that year, is a hazy, reverb-heavy track about questioning reality, and it arrived as she set out on her first US tour, supporting Porches.

Motorcycle was a studio project pairing New York vocalist Jes Brieden, who performs as JES, with producers Josh Gabriel and Dave Dresden of Gabriel & Dresden. 'As the Rush Comes' became a genuine trance landmark, topping Billboard's Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart and ending 2004 as the most-played song on US dance radio, a rare feat for a track built on restraint rather than the genre's usual bombast. This Chillout Mix strips the track back into a warmer downtempo listen. After the song's success JES launched a solo career, releasing her debut solo album, Disconnect, on Black Hole Recordings in 2007. Motorcycle itself was a one-off credit rather than an ongoing band.

orbit is the solo project of Marcel Heym, a German producer from Achim, near Bremen. He moved to Berlin in his twenties to work as a music producer, then deliberately moved back to his small hometown, where the project took shape. 'Youth' comes from Countless Feelings But So Few Words, his debut album, released in November 2025, which followed his 2020 EP Perspectives; he has also collaborated with Parra for Cuva and CRi, including on 'Too Close To Echo.'

Mannequin Pussy are a Philadelphia punk band fronted by singer-guitarist Marisa Dabice, who co-founded the group in 2010 with Athanasios Paul and now shares the lineup with bassist Colins 'Bear' Regisford, drummer Kaleen Reading and guitarist Maxine Steen. 'I Don't Know You' comes from I Got Heaven (2024), the record that brought the band its biggest critical wave yet, praised for combining ferocious noise-punk energy with genuine pop hooks. They signed to Epitaph in 2019 and launched their own imprint, Romantic Records, in 2023 -- a real vote of independence for a band that began as a scrappy two-piece. Their music has also been featured in the HBO series Mare of Easttown.

Pinback are a San Diego indie rock band built around Rob Crow and Armistead Burwell Smith IV, who performs as 'Zach Smith'; the two formed the group in 1998 and named it after a character in the 1974 sci-fi film Dark Star. 'AFK' comes from Summer in Abaddon (2004), their first release for storied indie label Touch and Go Records, an album critics singled out for its intricate, layered arrangements. Drummer Chris Prescott joined in 2005 and has played alongside the pair since. Summer in Abaddon and the later Autumn of the Seraphs (2007) and Information Retrieved (2012) all charted on the Billboard 200; Information Retrieved is their most recent studio album.

Daughter are an English indie-folk/dream-pop trio formed in London in 2010 by singer-songwriter Elena Tonra with Swiss guitarist Igor Haefeli and French drummer Remi Aguilella. Their sound pairs Tonra's hushed, confessional vocals with widescreen, atmospheric guitar and drum textures, heard across the albums 'If You Leave' (2013) and 'Not to Disappear' (2016), from which 'Doing the Right Thing' comes. A genuine vote of confidence in their music's emotional range: Daughter were trusted to compose the entire score for the 2017 video game 'Life Is Strange: Before the Storm,' released as the LP 'Music From Before the Storm.' After a few quiet years the band returned with their third album 'Stereo Mind Game' in 2023, followed by the Middle Farm Session EP in 2025.

Sebastien Tellier is a French singer, songwriter and producer from Le Plessis-Bouchard, near Paris, who has spent two decades blending French house, orchestral pop and synth-heavy new wave. 'La Ritournelle,' from his 2004 album 'Politics,' is his best-known song, a seven-and-a-half-minute slow build of strings and drums, featuring Tony Allen, that became a downtempo standard. A genuinely notable credential: France selected him to represent the country at the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest with 'Divine,' the first French Eurovision entry performed largely in English. He was named a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in April 2025 and released the album 'Kiss the Beast' on Because Music in January 2026.

frogurt is an Australia-based solo/bedroom project that has quietly built a substantial catalog since 2022, including the EPs 'What You Want To?' and 'twenty fifth of august' and full-lengths such as 'The Vehicle Is Invisible,' 'Arctic Survivor,' 'Soon Missed' and 'guided meditation.' 'water landing,' from the 2025 release 'any.thing,' fits the hushed, slow-motion sound the project is known for. What's genuinely admirable here is the sheer productivity: this is an act putting out at least one full release a year with almost no promotional footprint. Little has been made public about the person behind the project; its most recent album, 'a lifetime spent sitting down,' came out in 2026.

The Sea and Cake are a Chicago band, formed as a quartet of Sam Prekop, Archer Prewitt, Eric Claridge and John McEntire, who have been making warm, jazzy, gently propulsive indie-pop together since their 1994 debut. 'Parasol' comes from their second album, 'Nassau' (1995), which pushed the band's sound from their self-titled debut's pop immediacy toward more exploratory, texture-driven arrangements. One genuinely impressive credential: drummer/producer John McEntire, also of Tortoise, produced 'Nassau' himself and went on to become one of the most in-demand producers in indie rock, working on records for artists like Stereolab and Broken Social Scene. Claridge left the band after 2012's 'Runner,' and the remaining trio released the album 'Any Day' in 2018.

Phantogram are Sarah Barthel and Josh Carter, a duo from Greenwich, New York, who played around nearby Saratoga Springs early on and built their sound in a remote barn studio in upstate New York, nicknamed Harmonie Lodge. Their music fuses hip-hop-indebted beats and samples with shoegaze guitar haze and big pop hooks, a style the pair describe as 'street beat, psych pop.' 'As Far As I Can See' comes from their 2010 debut album 'Eyelid Movies,' which announced them as one of the more distinctive-sounding new bands of that era. The band later relocated to California and released their fifth studio album, 'Memory of a Day,' in 2024.

The Postmarks are a chamber-pop group formed in Pompano Beach, Florida, built around Tel Aviv-born singer Tim Yehezkely, working with multi-instrumentalists Christopher Moll and J. Phillip Wilkins, writing cinematic, string-laced pop that critics have compared to Mazzy Star and Stereolab. 'You Drift Away' is track 10 on their 2007 self-titled debut album, which opens with the song 'Goodbye.' A nice credential: the band was discovered by Andy Chase of the band Ivy, who signed them to his Unfiltered Records label, and they appeared on Nick Jr.'s 'Yo Gabba Gabba!,' giving this understated project an unexpectedly wide reach. The band went on hiatus in 2010 and began releasing new and re-recorded tracks in 2024.

Cannons are a Los Angeles synth-pop trio, vocalist Michelle Joy with Ryan Clapham and Paul Davis, who found their singer through a Craigslist ad and have made dreamy, retro-futurist 'escapist synthwave' together since forming in 2013. 'Bad Dream' comes from their 2022 album 'Fever Dream' and reached number 3 on Billboard's Alternative Airplay chart. The genuinely impressive part of their story: the band's earlier song 'Fire for You' (from 2019's 'Shadows') found a second life after a 2020 placement in Netflix's 'Never Have I Ever,' reached number one on Alternative Airplay, went Platinum, and led to their signing with Columbia Records. Cannons released their fifth album, 'Everything Glows,' in March 2026 and co-headlined a 2026 tour with Bob Moses.

Gold Panda is the recording name of English electronic producer Derwin Schlecker, who studied at London's SOAS and lived in Japan before channeling that influence into intricate, sample-built, folktronica-tinged instrumentals. 'In My Car' comes from his 2016 City Slang album 'Good Luck and Do Your Best.' A genuinely charming detail behind his breakout: his acclaimed debut, 'Lucky Shiner' (2010), was recorded in two weeks over Christmas at his aunt and uncle's house in Essex and is named after his grandmother, a homespun origin for a record that went on to earn a Metacritic score of 80 and press best-of-year mentions. His album 'TON UP' followed on Studio Barnhus in 2026.

Portico Quartet are a London instrumental group formed from two pairs of childhood friends who first made their name busking outside the National Theatre, taking their name from the portico where they were sent to play when it rained at an early gig. Their sound blends jazz, ambient and electronic textures, built early on around the hang drum alongside double bass and drums. Their 2007 debut, Knee-Deep in the North Sea, earned a Mercury Prize nomination, and this 2012 self-titled album (home to Ruins) found them settling into a richer electro-acoustic sound with new member Keir Vine. Drummer Duncan Bellamy, who trained in fine art, designs all of the band's own album artwork. The group released the companion albums Terrain and Monument in 2021.

Puracane were a New York City trip-hop group fronted by vocalist Ali Rogers, with guitarists Juan Masotta and Tony Diodore, bassist David Leatherwood and pianist Susan Elinger passing through the lineup over the years. Critics likened their sound to a mix of Tricky and Bjork, and their 2000 debut Things You Should Leave Alone (which includes 14 Nights) was well reviewed and reached #78 on the CMJ Top 200 chart. Their music also crossed into film, with the album track Big Day appearing on a snowboarding movie soundtrack. The band kept releasing records through the 2000s, including I've Been Here the Longest (2009), before disbanding in 2011.

Chatterton is a Southern California project, listed in Oxnard, built around Brock Pierce and Logan Scrivner, who fill out their recordings with a cast of guest musicians. Their sound mixes slowcore and shoegaze with a chamber-pop, almost storybook sensibility. Their September 2025 release Tiny Empire (home to Bite Down), produced by Scrivner, wears a children's-book look, with artwork by the illustrator Sibylle von Olfers, and folds marimba, glockenspiel, mellotron and organ in alongside the band's usual guitars.

Yndling is the solo project of Norwegian musician Silje Espevik, based in Oslo, who started out as a bedroom producer in 2020 and gained confidence after early interest from a label. She fuses shoegaze, trip-hop and dream pop, drawn to music that lets you 'make a lot of noise and you can be really quiet at the same time,' which suits her soft, whispery vocals. Citing Beach House, Portishead and Massive Attack as touchstones, she has earned real critical notice, including a Line of Best Fit feature titled 'Yndling is reinventing dream pop.' It's Almost Like You're Here appears on her second album, Time Time Time (I'm in the Palm of Your Hand), released in November 2025, the follow-up to her debut album Mood Booster.

Cocteau Twins were a Scottish dream-pop trio — Elizabeth Fraser, Robin Guthrie and Simon Raymonde — whose ethereal, effects-drenched sound became a blueprint for shoegaze and dream pop alike. Ella Megalast Burls Forever comes from 1988's Blue Bell Knoll, the album that marked their first major-label U.S. distribution deal; Fraser famously wrote all of its lyrics in a language of her own invention, which she said gave her 'wonderful freedom.' The band split in 1997, but their influence never faded — in 2022 all three members were jointly honored with the Ivors Academy's Visionary Award, decades after their last record together. A planned 2005 reunion at Coachella was cancelled, and after the split Guthrie and Raymonde co-founded the record label Bella Union.

The Herbaliser are a London jazz-hip-hop outfit built around producers Jake Wherry and Ollie Teeba, who turned to live jazz and funk players instead of turntables partly because they couldn't find rappers to work with at the time. Forty Winks comes from 1995's Remedies, their debut album on Ninja Tune, where the group was long a flagship act. Their music has also reached wide audiences through film: they produced music for the soundtrack to Guy Ritchie's Snatch. Their most recent album, Bring Out The Sound, came out on BBE in 2018.

DJ Shadow is the recording name of Josh Davis, who grew up in Davis, California, and started out DJing for UC Davis's campus radio station KDVS in 1989. This is the second track on his 1996 debut Endtroducing....., a Mo'Wax album built entirely from sampled vinyl that Guinness World Records recognized as the first album made completely from samples. The track itself is a small marvel of that method: a looped piano line from Jeremy Storch's 'I Feel a New Shadow' is joined, layer by layer, by an interview clip of drummer George Marsh, a women's choir, bass fills, processed drum kicks and funk guitar, all assembled on an Akai MPC60 sampler. For the album's 30th anniversary, Shadow announced a North American tour scheduled to run from September 24, 2026, in San Diego to November 1, 2026, in Fort Worth.

Night Swimming are a Bath/Bristol-based dream-pop/shoegaze five-piece — Meg Jones on lead vocals, Sam Allen and Jesse Roache on guitars, Josh Nottle on bass and Torin Moore on drums — who met as students at Bath Spa University. Their sound draws on Cocteau Twins and Beach House, with Jones's classically trained voice moving between ethereal falsetto and more direct delivery across influences she describes as spanning folk, trip-pop and dub. Warmer appears on their debut EP No Place to Land, released in September 2024, a month before the band played their first international show, in Paris. Jones has said simply, 'I really can't imagine not making music.'

Not For Radio is the solo project of Maria Zardoya, lead singer of the Los Angeles dream-pop band The Marias, who also sang on Bad Bunny's blockbuster 'Un Verano Sin Ti.' The sound here is hazier and more intimate than her main band, and her debut album Melt, released in October 2025, surprised the industry by dropping all ten songs at once with no advance singles. It still landed at No. 13 on the Billboard 200 and hit No. 2 on the Vinyl Albums chart in its first week, a striking result for a low-key side project.

Wu-Lu is the stage name of Miles Romans-Hopcraft, a musician from Brixton in South London who moves fluidly between punk, hip-hop, dub, and jazz without settling into one lane. He is closely tied to South London's celebrated jazz scene, collaborating with artists like Nubya Garcia, and his 2022 album Loggerhead, his first for Warp Records, earned nominations for Best Punk Record at the Libera Awards and Best Independent Album at the AIM Awards. 'Then I Dream' comes from Ginga, his self-released 2015 debut, made years before that wider recognition. In June 2026 he released Bakerz Dozen, a collaborative EP with POiSON ANNA, on Warp.

Swapmeet are an Adelaide, Australia four-piece, Joshua Doherty, Venus O'Broin, Maxwell Elphick, and Jack Medlyn, who write folk-leaning indie rock in the vein of Big Thief and Julia Jacklin. Their debut EP Oxalis (2024), which opens with 'Ceiling Fan,' was entirely self-recorded and self-mixed by the band, layering dozens of tracks per song. The record won Best Song and Best Release at the 2024 South Australian Music Awards, and the band later became the first international act signed to the Los Angeles label Winspear. They played SXSW in 2026, where Rolling Stone named them among the festival's most impressive new acts, and released their debut full-length album, Mount Zero, in July 2026.

The Radio Dept. are a dream-pop duo built around Johan Duncanson and Martin Larsson from Lund, Sweden, known for blending fuzzed-out guitar pop with electronic textures. Their profile jumped internationally when three of their songs, two of them from 2006's Pet Grief, appeared in Sofia Coppola's film Marie Antoinette, introducing their hazy sound to a much wider audience. Clinging to a Scheme (2010), the source of 'A Token of Gratitude,' is widely regarded as a genre high point. In 2026 the band announced a London headline show for November 2026, their first there in nearly a decade, along with new music in progress and a planned Pet Grief vinyl reissue.

Fine is the solo project of Copenhagen musician Fine Glindvad Jensen, previously a vocalist in the electro-R&B trio CHINAH and a guest singer in Clarissa Connelly's project Canons. Her debut album Rocky Top Ballads (2024) is a genuine solo achievement: she recorded, produced, and mixed the entire thing herself, leaning on acoustic guitar and Americana textures rather than the digital sounds common among her peers. 'Big Muzzy' comes from that record, released on the Copenhagen label Escho, whose roster also includes experimental Danish artist Astrid Sonne.

Chromatics were a Portland, Oregon electronic group whose classic lineup, Ruth Radelet, Adam Miller, Nat Walker, and producer Johnny Jewel, turned from noisy lo-fi beginnings into the moody, Italo-disco-inflected synth-pop that made them a cult favorite. 'Cherry' first surfaced in 2013 on their own label, Italians Do It Better, and became one of the most-loved tracks from that nocturnal, cinematic run, later collected on a deluxe edition. Their 2012 album Kill for Love was ranked the 8th best album of that year by Pitchfork, a genuine critical high point for the group. The band disbanded in August 2021, with Johnny Jewel saying he would keep making music through Italians Do It Better.

Night Tapes are a London-based dream-pop trio, Iiris Vesik from Estonia alongside Max Doohan and Sam Richards from the UK, who first started making music together as housemates in South London in the late 2010s. They built a devoted following through a run of EPs before signing to Nettwerk for their debut album, portals//polarities, released in September 2025, of which 'storm' is a highlight. Their atmospheric, night-driving sound has drawn remix interest from producers like Franc Moody, a sign of reach beyond the core dream-pop scene.

Slowdive are shoegaze pioneers from Reading, England, formed in 1989 around Neil Halstead and Rachel Goswell, whose early records helped define the genre alongside My Bloody Valentine. 'Rutti' comes from Pygmalion (1995), a daring turn into ambient, post-rock textures that was misunderstood on release but has since been reassessed as a genuine masterpiece that influenced a generation of ambient and post-rock artists. The band split not long after Pygmalion but reunited in 2014, and released the acclaimed everything is alive in 2023. Their influence on the 2020s shoegaze revival is hard to overstate.