The term shoegaze suggests a posture of deep introspection, but the sound itself is often an outward blast of monumental sonic energy. For two decades, Apricot Magazine has followed the bands that capture this dichotomy best, and Brooklyn’s Phantom Wave stands firmly among them. With the release of their third LP, Echoes Unknown, on October 17, 2025, the trio has delivered an upbeat addition to their catalog. The album comfortably captures the distorted dreamscape that has become their undeniable trademark, setting a new bar for their artistic output.
The band, comprised of Ian Carpenter on guitar and vocals, Yanek Che on bass, and Rachel Fischer on drums, creates a wild depth of sound that successfully bends the genre’s conventions. While they pay clear homage to shoegaze classics and nugaze influences, their approach is defined by dynamic energies and multilayered textures that keep the listener constantly engaged with the shifting soundscape. Following up on their previous releases, Wilds and Bonfire Secrets, Echoes Unknown confirms their status as a crucial force in contemporary dream pop and pushes their signature sound forward with immense purpose.
The creation of the album was a demanding, collaborative deep dive into texture and atmosphere that required intricate engineering and deliberate layering. Recorded at The Building in Marlboro, NY with sound engineer Ryan Dieringer, the process incorporated a variety of creative in-studio effects, piano, synth, drum machine, and other percussive elements. This foundational layering gave the tracks their initial richness. The final, immense depth was achieved in the mixing process by Elliott Frazier of Ringo Deathstarr, and the mastering was completed by Adrian Morgan of Timeless Mastering, ensuring the album’s sound was both massive and incredibly nuanced.
The influences driving Echoes Unknown form a comprehensive blueprint of alternative sonic mastery. The band pulls directly from shoegaze and dream pop favorites such as MBV, Ride, Chapterhouse, Mazzy Star, Lush, and Slowdive, creating a lineage of beautiful noise. They also reference contemporary artists like Crystal Canyon, Beach House, Ringo Deathstarr, and DIIV. Crucially, the band looks beyond the genre, drawing structural and atmospheric ideas from alternative rock favorites such as Radiohead, Sonic Youth, Stereolab, Majesty Crush, and Massive Attack, broadening their musical scope significantly.
The album begins its descent into the hazy and ethereal collage with the title track, Echoes Unknown. This opener immediately establishes the album’s emotional gravity, utilizing a massive wall of sound that is typical of the genre but imbued with an unusual sense of forward momentum. This is quickly followed by Splashed, a track whose title suggests an immediate, full immersion into the dreamy, reverb-drenched sonic water that defines the Phantom Wave aesthetic, washing the listener in beautiful noise and ambient melody before the journey truly begins.
The track Hologrammer hints at the album’s preoccupation with the ethereal and the unreal, suggesting a sound that is less about raw noise and more about shimmering, complex synth layers that give the song a beautiful, three-dimensional quality. This leads directly into Woozy, a track that suggests a slow, hypnotic rhythm, perfect for conveying the band’s signature distorted dreamscape. It provides that meditative rest the band references, offering a moment of sonic deceleration before the album’s dynamic shift and eventual acceleration toward the climax and final resolution.
The pace then picks up dramatically with Breakaway, a track built for high energy and catharsis. The title clearly implies a burst of dynamic energy, showcasing Rachel Fischer’s powerful drumming and Ian Carpenter’s searing guitar work, successfully pulling the listener out of the previous hypnotic haze. This high-energy momentum continues directly into Collider, a track whose very name suggests the immense force of sound created when Carpenter’s heavily distorted guitar and Yanek Che’s weighty bass lines meet in full impact, resulting in a glorious, powerful crush of noise that is both loud and meticulously controlled.
One of the most intriguing elements of the album is revealed in the story behind the track Wanton. Mixer Elliott Frazier said he wanted this song to sound like a creepy ice cream truck, a creative direction that adds unique richness and depth through unconventional, often unsettling, in-studio effects. This unconventional approach, along with High Halcyon, which suggests a mood of elevated, peacefulness, shows the band’s commitment to exploring texture and sound design, preventing the album from settling into expected shoegaze tropes.
The final two tracks bring the album’s emotional and sonic journey to its close. Memory Swerver hints at the psychological depth of the album, suggesting a lyrical or instrumental focus on the malleability of perception and the unreliable nature of human recall, a theme perfectly fitting for a band obsessed with the ethereal. The album ultimately concludes with Sirens, a track whose mythical reference suggests a final, overwhelming pull toward the beautiful but dangerous unknown, ending the record on a note of intense, compelling allure and profound sonic mystery.
Echoes Unknown is a sophisticated, powerful piece of art released on Shore Dive Records, Brighton, UK. It is a triumphant statement from Phantom Wave, successfully projecting their dreams into the near future and offering listeners a hazy, ethereal collage of sounds that serves as a vital sonic way station. We hope that listeners allow themselves to be taken on this intricate journey, as it solidifies Phantom Wave as one of the genre’s most essential contemporary voices, proving that the distorted dreamscape has infinite room for rewarding, musical exploration and future growth within the scene.
