My Review: My Beloved - November Sun

My Beloved – November Sun

Review by

Alex Dematteis

Musicshockworld 

8th November 2026

My favourite Post-Rock album of the year 2026

Song of the year: The Morning

To feel as though one is penetrated by descriptions that lay bare every secret.

To find oneself in places that have already been part of our past experience.

To rediscover, as time passes, moments free from fear or tension.

Depending on our personality, the three situations mentioned above can define joy or its opposite, in an emotional and rational turmoil that can tear us in two.

Here comes a piece of work that is nothing less than a concert, a live evolution, a controlled yet powerful experiment that leaves the doors to thrills wide open, allowing us to attempt to uncover hidden passages through a fertile imagination, thereby proving wrong those who think that instrumental music – and, specifically, post-rock – is the weak point of those who know how to play their instruments.

The band lays bare all the complexities of their home city, venturing into the tree-lined avenues of Frederiksberg (through the breadth and slowness of the visionary gaze that sweeps through the streets), bringing us the dampness of Christianshavn (when the guitar and bass come together, the rain falls and the soul grows damp), the bustle of souls in the famous Indre By (the sombre, tribal, albeit slow, drumming, and the sighs of a warm, passionate synth), offering a live glimpse into an urban agglomeration that lives and experiences existence.

There’s no need for voices, words or panoramic photos taken from above…

The layout of the Danish capital makes a music studio an extension of its lakes, a long journey towards the Baltic and North Seas, allowing us to swim whilst listening to these notes that reveal the boundaries of the seasons of existence, of the soul, of silent voices that in no way dampen the dynamic sense of wanting to live the life entrusted to them to the full and with passion.

*November Sun* curtails and expands every empty frenzy, teaching calm and patience through a distinctive portrayal of the connections between places and people, in a narrative that moves the reader with its precision and descriptive quality. It really does seem as though they – these four knights of sound – are in fact writers of sociological and philosophical treatises, poets wrapped up in coats with their collars turned up, on a journey towards defining what is happening without overlooking a single detail.

Indeed: this is the greatest – and wisely awe-inspiring – merit we find in this Nordic pentagram, through the study, exploration and interpretation of the events they have experienced, imagined, intended, and which took place without them acting as photographers or directors, in that they do not stage a story nor freeze it in still frames, but rather continue to live out their own experience and that of others through subjects unsuited to display but rather to introspection – which is, after all, what cinema and photography shy away from by nature and out of fear…

If, whilst listening or afterwards, you think this is an artistic project in which the guitar dominates, shapes and defines the whole, you’ll be in for a sound slap in the face from Vecchio Scriba: in this year of 2026, there is no other album that better defines the interplay not only of the instruments but, above all, of the textures and inspirations, in a dense, continuous dialogue that is both instinctive and rational, representing, through perfect dynamics, the full range of personalities at play in this truly majestic collection of sonic films. 

Seeing dreamlike, arcane, gentle and twilight-like situations paired together – right up to the fleeting ones – with echoes that celebrate action and memory, becomes an event of great magnitude, one that is difficult to manage and therefore fascinating, and which fosters personal growth. 

Powerful, skilful in opening up to the very heart of its rhythms, this work of art allows secrets to breathe whilst enfolding them within skilful embraces. The musical notes carry within them melancholy and emotional explorations, like a prayer that soars beyond the heavens, allowing the senses the chance never to fall asleep, to feel united in a rhythmic interplay that gives voice to truths, dreams, traumas and frenzy – all of which share a common thread of gentleness and controlled chaos. 

Contrasting colours (one need only think of the interplay between black and white and the red on the album cover),  which broaden the scope of vision, and those of sound (the alternation between evocative rhythms, rich in echoes and reverberation, and those that are more sinuous, almost silent and slow), form a cohesive whole, a perpetual descent into the inner self, into its channels of perception and expression, combining noise and silence in a Hamlet-like dance.

And then, strikingly, the narrative of the passage of time emerges through the use of the silent film technique, which forces the viewer to imagine the colours where they seem to be missing: indeed, it is undeniable that this is an album which demands a committed use of this kind of approach – skilfully honed to engage with these continuous, immersive journeys through the labyrinthine alleys of thoughts and events, so intertwined and interdependent…

Ultimately, it is not a musical genre that asserts itself or celebrates itself; rather, it is a journey that questions itself, enabling itself to accept and overcome its limitations, in order to move forward wherever there is a desire to take it – into a different, lofty space, one never before reached: in the specific case of My Beloved, that of trust, of personal needs realised through interlocking elements that unleash the orgasms derived from playing, transforming them into sonic poetry…

To describe them as individual songs or a concept album is, I believe, incorrect and inappropriate: I would say, rather, that we are faced with episodes with strong personalities, with ample scope to stand out, like those in a conversation that highlights differences and points of contact, thereby succeeding in becoming a treatise in which psychology and physicality meet at the same boundary. Yet they are never static, ponderous or intrusive, preferring the creativity of slow, animal-like movements, constantly exploring and safeguarding their own individual identities.

Generous, fertile, devastating – this pure yet hazy whole takes one’s breath away with its vehemence, subtlety, refinement, elegance and ardour. An expressive journey that tears apart those who seek a comfort zone in music. They, for one, certainly do not inhabit one: every single moment of this work is a walk on water, through the waves of the woods, along the steps of the sky…

The quartet releases toxins in the form of enchantments to be kissed; they apply the brakes just where we’d like to be left breathless by a mad dash: they are masters of magic, modern druids with just the right potions to bestow upon us unknown qualities, transforming the listening experience into the discovery of new layers of skin – all, incidentally, governed by intense shivers…

We thus find ourselves, willy-nilly, bearing witness to a narrative that is anything but modern, but rather a triumphant march of ancient forms and content, setting aside the thrill of novelty in order to restore to us that which we have turned our backs on: an intellectual, attentive listening experience, devoid of ambiguity and brimming with that culture now long buried. 

They prefer to remain grounded in reason and scholarship, celebrating the marriage between childhood and adulthood, and taking on the task of making art a space that brings together the true and the untrue, but never the false…

Take, for example, the most intense moment of this journey (so called because what preceded it laid the right foundations…): ‘The Morning’, a track considered by the Old Scribe to be the absolute best of 2026. 

Here we have a story rich in nuance, the centripetal forces that propel us towards cardinal points where our emotions can savour the benefit of losing control, leading to a triumph that transcends catharsis – like a celebratory act that never ends, aware of its eternal life, like a storm that ceases to frighten us but allows the water to continue to quench our thirst…

A delightfully heavenly moment of almost superhuman beauty: when music takes on this form, beholding it finally grants us the most perfect vision…

It is no coincidence that this work comes from the north, from the mind, from where everything begins and where everything ends: the Danish band manages to transform dance steps, from the joy of ‘Awake’ to the gloomy, trembling alleyways of ‘Hercules’, before throwing open the windows in the gentle ‘November’, where dawn and dusk gaze at one another almost in silence, with a faint hiss turning their dialogue into a well into which the guitar’s arpeggio plunges, only to transform into a march dictated by the drumming. 

When you reach the final episode of *Last Sun, First Tears* – which opened the series – it feels like a book in which everything has been written, yet, cleverly, the word ‘The End’ is missing, because this gem leaves the door open for a re-listen, like a cylinder of oxygen you simply cannot do without…

Out on November 13, 2026

Album link:

https://mybeloved.bandcamp.com/album/november-sun

My Beloved official site:

https://mybeloved.dk/

Instagram page:

https://www.instagram.com/mybeloved_band?xtok=OGIydGc3ZjZ4YXc3

My Review: Under Fall, Martin Hall - Apparently all the same

 Under Fall, Martin Hall - Apparently all the same

A fundamental, phenomenal record, necessary to everyone's consciousness. To call it a masterpiece would be easy but useless, in the world that has emptied this word of meaning. The only album with this label, in reality these songs were all written by Martin Hall, who has had a wonderful career.

A work that feeds and nurtures gentle cataclysms, overcoat rages: everything lies within it and only emerges through great scrutiny. Edgy but flowing, chaotic but comprehensible, a tide that makes the sound genuflect, because it is good to stress this condition, it was written and performed by Danish people, at a time when this kind of climate was an English and German prerogative. It was a trauma for the old scribe to hear it a year after its release, as the concentration of quality was undeniable and it was tremendously hard to believe that it had been conceived in that part of the world.

A concentration of experimental aptitude transforms an artistic ensemble into a descriptive encyclopaedia of a period and its inclinations: the musical genres present are not a collage, but a formed and constructed impetus to whitewash the sky, with a snowfall of skill, with a conducting that makes one imagine a tiny team of navigators in command of a vessel that is enormous because of the wanderings, the topics covered and the mode. Neurotic, sombre, an epileptic and pyrotechnic set, surprising and capable of stirring feelings and reasoning in each of the fourteen tracks. Severe, the joy comes from its sincerity and certainly not from its mode, which is dark and paranoid, hypnotising and consequently capable of developing an intense study. Post-Punk is annihilated, Coldwave reduced to a cold sweat, Synth Pop presents its structures, but without the company of the other genres it would lose its substance. There is a crazy ability to deconstruct the known and make it perfect by means of a resounding transformation and assemblage. Undoubtedly one of the old scribe's most valid and resistant works to the wear and tear of modern life...

Alex Dematteis 

Musicshockworld

Supino

25th April 2023

https://martinhall.bandcamp.com/album/apparently-all-the-same-2009-special-edition

My Review: TORCH - A Familiar Lie

 

TORCH - A Familiar Lie

May you be blessed, Denmark: how you can be so versatile, in all the arts, is truly a mystery, but with this generosity enjoying it becomes a privilege and it would be a shame not to take advantage of it. The trio from Aarhus play hardball, rummage and conquer new proselytes, lower their gaze and find in semi-darkness their favourite ally to flood our babblings with dark and gloomy satisfaction. But where are we? Really in the north of Europe? And if so, are we sure it is music published in our time? The answer is always yes, confirming the fact that we are inattentive and do not follow well the movements of bands that know how to have the same right and ability as many others to honour genres which are still able to stimulate curiosity and the rightful contribution of discomfort.

After the first extraordinary and delirious seconds, where we can already sense that we are in front of something that will grip us, the electronic part, the Darkwave, the most scholastic and effective Synthwave stun us and they do so with the favours of darkness, becoming an angry pagan rite without having to explode in rage. We stocked up on beauty in a few minutes....

Alex Dematteis

Musicshockworld

Salford

2nd April 2023

https://torchh.bandcamp.com/track/a-familiar-lie

La mia Recensione: Cloudwalk - Rose again; My sun, My Mind

 La mia Recensione:

Cloudwalk - Rose again; My sun, My Mind 

Nuotare nelle onde della magia avvolgente ci lascia increduli, storditi, come puledri su gambe tremanti, con la bava alla bocca per la quantità di emisferi che sembrano farci compiere un galoppo universale.

Capita talvolta con lo sguardo verso il mondo, con l’ascolto della musica che diventa proprio un pianeta da abitare e che riesce ad abitarti, quando l’attenzione e la sensibilità si prendono per mano.

Vi sto per parlare di un album che mi sta facendo fare il giro delle emozioni, di considerazioni intense, regalando l’ampiezza di cui necessito, come una esperienza energetica notevolissima.

La band è Danese, un soffio di dolcezza pura che arriva dal nord per portarci quel calore che solo la mancanza di profondità può credere che sia impossibile possa provenire da quella parte del mondo. La musica da loro composta ed eseguita con gran classe è capace di sbalordire se si va oltre dei cliché che possono uccidere la percezione: vi è un solo posto dove siano in grado di vivere ed è lo stupore. L’album è un debutto notevole: in cinquanta minuti e undici brani abbiamo cibo per l’anima che può sfamarci, scuotere la nebbia della noia e della mediocrità per sistemare la nostra vacillante intelligenza per tutto il tempo che vorremo. Accennavo alla magia ed è proprio quella che risiede nei circuiti elettrici di questo vapore magnetico, purificante e maestoso, che con il passare dei minuti lascia basiti e tremanti.

Potrei anche cercare di definire tecnicamente il genere, ma mi parrebbe riduttivo: quando si guarda dentro una cellula, tutte le specificità si assentano e gli occhi pulsano per manifesta incapacità descrittiva davanti a ciò che pare indefinibile.

Sì, certamente, lo Shoegaze è presente, come un Post-Rock rivisitato e corretto, ma il nucleo di tutto ciò molto più probabilmente è connesso a una forma invisibile che controlla la forza della natura umana.

Con questo involucro il contenuto non può che essere intenso, incline a una bellezza fatta di intensità crescente, protetta dalla luna e dal silenzio cosmico. Si entra nei rivestimenti sonori come echi di un tempo bisognoso di ascolto, dove l’aria è rarefatta e tutto diventa un regalo immenso. Appare evidente il sincrono lavoro di sinergie che creano atolli, circondati da onde musicali che stregano, segregano il banale e ci purificano.

Come una scossa confidenziale di brividi allenati all’evoluzione, tutto appare nitido per poter essere condiviso da sensi allineati in un patto saldo e invincibile.

Dinamiche desuete mostrano la loro unicità più che evidente per stordire e compattare le nostre inquinate modalità di approccio nel sentire, come un vetro che soffia verso la luce rischiarando la visione del mondo. Il cantato sempre avvolto da movimenti sonori inebrianti, sciolti, vigorosi e capaci di toglierci le briglie per condurci a un galoppo libero.

Esiste una poesia fatta di armonie come batuffoli di lana che si tuffano nella morbidezza della seta, un impianto elettrico di sobbalzi continui, adulti e consapevoli. 

C’è uno spirito di dedizione e completezza che respira tra le composizioni come se non si potesse fare altro che scrivere la storia di una bellezza antica con mezzi moderni, rappresentare il chiaroscuro dell’esistenza con delicata propensione al rispetto, senza essere roboanti nei suoni bensì nelle suggestioni che volano prendendoci con sé. 

Le scintille incontenibili sono visibili quando il poeta le tramanda con i suoi versi: così fanno i Cloudwalk, coniugando il giorno e la notte nel girone della bellezza continua, dove se si vuole essere catturati la prigionia diventa un privilegio.

Questa band sa accorciare le distanze e cancellare le differenze tra il bello e il brutto eliminando il secondo, senza dover far esplodere nulla, ma subissandolo con una classe che non può assolutamente perdere il confronto, perché la bruttezza si spegne dinanzi a questo movimento che come un cerchio che si stringe annulla il potere di chi non è avvezzo a considerare la bellezza come l’unico trono possibile.

È venuto il momento di perlustrare questo territorio che ci lascia a bocca aperta, per respirare l’immensità dell’universo in volo verso ciò che fa del mistero l’unico motivo per cui vale la pena perdersi.

Undici candele celestiali, la prima è MY SUN, l’ingresso nella bellezza con chitarre cadenzate che ricordano l’importanza dei Durutti Column e certe band della 4ad.

CAGE OF LOVE è una canzone quasi robusta con un cantato che sembra provenire da un lupo con la voce bassa, per un’atmosfera alla fine che rimane sognante.

Si arriva a STRANGER e ci si commuove: la densità del cuore trova rifugio in questa melodia adatta a un abbraccio tra le lacrime. 

MOONSHINE: si sta in attesa nell’introduzione, pronti ad un attacco. Ma poi è zona onirica meravigliosa ed estasiante. Un sogno che si apre nota dopo nota.

Una gemma dal titolo RAYS OF WISHES illuminerà anche il cuore più sordo. Se gli Slowdive salissero al nord suonerebbero così!

Lo stupore continua: un piano avvolto di luce notturna è la struttura di RISE AGAIN, al quale basta poco per sussurrarci una melodia marittima, tra onde bellissime.

Il K2 dell’album: GHOST TOWN, lo Shoegaze che si esprime nella maturità poco conosciuta, abbandonandosi a una misurata dilatazione del suono. 

E ora l’Everest: con I WANTED MORE, il volo sul mondo con le ali sonore di una canzone strepitosa, neve fresca negli occhi che piangono felici. Ci si perde nella sua struttura corposa e capace di incollarci tra le sue piume.

BULLETPROOF: anche le frecce possono compiere un cerchio… Qualcosa di sacro esce da questa marcia atipica, una processione dove si celebra la loro intensità.

Ciò che è evidente in questo album è la propensione a rendere compatti i suoni e gli strumenti, ma anche a dare spazio all’effervescente brillantezza di una chitarra sinuosa come quella di FADING WINTER: lo dimostra, basta saper attendere e si gode di questa camminata tra vibrazioni quasi vicine al thriller come  ad esempio nel finale.

Si conclude il percorso tra le candele e MY MIND è la chicca che consola, che rende ancora più valido e interessante tutto ciò che abbiamo ascoltato. È vagare nel tempo e tra le onde della chitarra che le apre per consegnarci un cantato magistrale.  

Alex Dematteis

Musicshockworld

Salford

25 Maggio 2022

Brett Tootle - vocals, guitar Jacob Mignon - guitar, backing vocals, piano Teis Harrington - drums Amalie Dallerup - backing vocals, piano, keys Sebastian Krogh - bass

https://open.spotify.com/album/1jfHtSbupVDBCpQHUKjiQU?si=C-rYcaODTEW-_5h5KyQUtQ

My Review: Cloudwalk - Rose again; My sun, My Mind

 My Review:

Cloudwalk - Rose again; My sun, My Mind 

Swimming in the waves of enveloping magic leaves us incredulous, stunned, like foals on trembling legs, frothing at the mouth because of the amount of hemispheres that seem to make us perform a universal gallop.

It happens sometimes looking out at the world, listening to music that becomes just a planet to inhabit and that manages to inhabit you, when attention and sensitivity join hands.

I’m going to talk about an album that is taking me on a tour of emotions, of intense considerations, giving the breadth I need, as a remarkable energetic experience.

The band is Danish, a breath of pure sweetness coming from the north to bring us the warmth that only a lack of depth can believe it absolutely cannot originate from that part of the world. The music they compose and perform with great class is capable of astounding if one goes beyond clichés that can kill perception: there is only one place where they are able to live and that is amazement. This album is a remarkable debut: in fifty minutes and eleven tracks we have food for the soul that can feed us, shake off the fog of boredom and mediocrity to settle our faltering intelligence for as long as we want. I was mentioning magic and that is precisely what resides in the electrical circuits of this magnetic, purifying and majestic vapor, which as the minutes go by leaves us stunned and trembling.

I could also try to technically define the genre, but that would seem reductive: when one looks inside a cell, all specificity is absent and the eyes pulsate with manifest descriptive inability before what seems indefinable.

Yes, certainly, shoegaze is present, like a revisited and corrected Post-Rock, but the core of it all is much more likely connected to an invisible form which controls the force of human nature.

With this shell the content can only be intense, prone to a beauty made of increasing intensity, protected by the moon and cosmic silence. One enters the sonic coatings as echoes of a time in need of listening, where the air is rarefied and everything becomes an immense gift. The synchronous work of synergies that create atolls, surrounded by musical waves that bewitch, segregate the trivial and purify us, appears evident.

Like a confidential jolt of chills trained in evolution, everything appears clear to be shared by senses aligned in a firm and invincible pact.

Outdated dynamics show their uniqueness more than evident to stun and compact our polluted modes of approach in feeling, like glass blowing toward light brightening the worldview. Vocals are always wrapped in heady, loose, vigorous sound movements capable of taking off the reins to lead us into a free gallop.

There is a poetry made of harmonies like cotton balls plunging into the softness of silk, an electric system of continuous jerks, adult and aware. 

There is a spirit of dedication and wholeness that breathes among the compositions as if one could do nothing more than write the story of an ancient beauty with modern means, depicting the light and dark of existence with delicate propensities of respect, without being pretentious in sounds but in suggestions that fly by taking us with them. 

The irrepressible sparks are visible when the poet passes them on with his verses: so do Cloudwalk, combining day and night in the circle of continuous beauty where, if one wants to be captured, captivity becomes a privilege.

This band knows how to shorten distances and erase the differences between the beautiful and the ugly by eliminating the latter, without having to explode anything, but subduing it with a class that absolutely cannot lose the confrontation, because ugliness is extinguished before this movement that like a tightening circle cancels the power of those who are not accustomed to considering beauty as the only possible throne.

It’s time to examine this territory that leaves us open-mouthed, to breathe in the immensity of the universe in flight towards what makes mystery the only reason worth getting lost for.

Eleven heavenly candles, the first being MY SUN, the entrance into beauty with cadenced guitars reminiscent of the importance of Durutti Column and certain 4ad bands.

CAGE OF LOVE is an almost robust song with vocals that seem to come from a wolf with a low voice, for an atmosphere at the end that remains dreamy.

We come to STRANGER and are moved: the density of the heart finds refuge in this melody fit for a hug between tears. 

MOONSHINE: one stands waiting in the introduction, ready for an attack. But then it is a wonderful and ecstatic dreamlike area. A dream that unfolds note by note.

A gem entitled RAYS OF WISHES will enlighten even the deafest heart. If Slowdive went up north they would sound like this.

The amazement continues: a piano shrouded in night light is the structure of RISE AGAIN, which needs very little to whisper us a maritime melody, among beautiful waves.

The K2 of the album: GHOST TOWN, shoegaze that expresses itself in little-known maturity, indulging in a measured expansion of sound. 

And now Everest: with I WANTED MORE, the flight over the world with the sonic wings of a resounding song, fresh snow in the eyes crying happily. We get lost in its rich structure capable of gluing us between its feathers.

BULLETPROOF: Even arrows can make a circle... Something sacred comes out of this atypical march, a procession where their intensity is celebrated.

What is evident in this album is the propensity to make the sounds and instruments compact, but also to give space to the effervescent brilliance of a sinuous guitar like that of FADING WINTER: it shows, you just have to know how to wait and you enjoy this walk through vibrations almost close to thriller, as for example in the end.

The path among the candles comes to an end and MY MIND is the consoling gem that makes everything we have heard even more valid and interesting. It is wandering in time and among the waves of the guitar that opens them to deliver us a masterful singing.  

Alex Dematteis

Musicshockworld

Salford

25th May 2022

Brett Tootle - vocals, guitar Jacob Mignon - guitar, backing vocals, piano Teis Harrington - drums Amalie Dallerup - backing vocals, piano, keys Sebastian Krogh - bass

https://open.spotify.com/album/1jfHtSbupVDBCpQHUKjiQU?si=C-rYcaODTEW-_5h5KyQUtQ