After one single, Post Inner Circle presents an expanded listen with Artificial Sun. The band is described as a “band blending post-rock, dream pop, and shoegaze.” And when listening to this EP, it’s great to hear that the band understands how to use these genres to their fullest.
While some bands call seven songs a full length, Post Inner Circle’s seven songs are split into a three to one to three set. “Mountain Dew” is a typical shoegaze song at its core with a dream pop introduction. And the way Post Inner Circle blends the two is perfectly organic. If you know both styles, you’ll hear how each piece plays its part.
Then the band leans into an acoustic dream pop world on “Dream Tomorrow.” It only uses hints of shoegaze here and is surprising as the second song. “Poignant” is post rock mixed with alternative rock. It uses a repeating verse and distortion to create the waves in the guitar. And after the midpoint of the song, Post Inner Circle show off their post rock skills. It’s a nice separation between the shoegaze that came before.
“Mumbling Dreamlike Shimmers” is a mid-EP reset with keyboard and synth. It slows everything down. The song then rolls into “Eternity,” and the EP gets started again. This is like dream pop layered on top of post rock. The vocals and main melody are dream pop, with the bass and drums pushing a post rock arrangement. And I can see that Post Inner Circle may like highlighting melodies, but want even more bass guitar and percussion in the mix because they get buried.
“Artificial Sun” is a dream pop version of a shoegaze song. It’s a light track that showcases Eunbin Yoon and Jaechan Kim. It’s an instrumental song that’s a 2:19 introduction to the final track, “Flashback.”
I finally hear the low end on “Flashback” and it proves that it’s a missing piece of all the previous songs. This is how I should hear all of Post Inner Circle’s songs. The bass guitar and drums play an important role in post rock and shoegaze, and they need to be in your face or at least in the middle of a mix.
Artificial Sun is an excellent EP and extended debut of Post Inner Circle’s dream pop, shoegaze, and post rock sound. Other than making a more dynamic mix, there’s nothing the band needs to change.
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Written by Chris P for Korean Indie.
