Smush

Vocals that refuse to disappear into the fuzz are a useful place to start with Smush. The band, Canadian-founded and now Brooklyn-based, formed in Vancouver in 2022 around Emily Borrowman on bass and vocals, Atley King on guitar and Jay Christie on drums. Their shoegaze takes in indie rock, grunge and dream pop, and the online magazine Idioteq heard lineage in My Bloody Valentine, Slow Pulp, Julie and Slow Crush. Borrowman's voice stays intelligible where some shoegaze forebears buried theirs, a quality that recalls Beach House.

The couple had been writing songs casually for years before the band took shape in 2022, when they began writing more deliberately after a trip to New York and the bands they saw there. King holds a BA in jazz vibraphone and has played in earlier groups, while Borrowman sang in choirs and theatre. Their debut album, if you were here i'd be home now, came out on 15 June 2024, first available only on Bandcamp, and reached streaming on 1 November. Some tracks date from 2022 sessions. Standards, a covers EP, followed on 20 February 2026, and a concept album is planned next.