Soundslip on Estonian Shoegaze: 'Too polished these days'

Estonian shoegaze band Soundslip has released their new album 'Rejected Homeworks'. The band reflects on how the shoegaze genre has become too refined in contemporary music.

Estonian shoegaze band Soundslip has just released their new album titled «Rejected Homeworks» — a name that carries a certain poetic melancholy. The band is considered something of a veteran act in the Estonian music scene, having carved out a niche in a genre not widely represented domestically.

Shoegaze, the dreamy and distortion-heavy guitar genre that emerged in the UK in the late 1980s, has seen a notable revival in recent years worldwide. However, Soundslip takes a critical view of where the genre currently stands. According to the band, modern shoegaze tends to sound overly polished and lacks the raw, abrasive texture that originally defined the style.

«Rejected Homeworks» appears to be a deliberate statement against that trend — an album title that hints at imperfection embraced rather than corrected. For Soundslip, the rough edges are not mistakes to be smoothed out but essential elements of the sonic identity they've built over the years in Estonia.