Chapterhouse always managed to be in the right place at the wrong time. They were acidrockers as acid house hit; they were shoegazers when grunge germinated; they were experimental dance-rockers as Britpop broke. It’s only with the benefit of hindsight that we can see they have always been a band ahead of their time. Formed over the summer of 1987 by a bunch of school friends from Reading, they started out jamming on Stooges covers and songs from the Pebbles compilations for fun, which initially led to them being taken under the wing of Spacemen 3. After a couple EPs, the band dropped the classic ‘Pearl’, with its mix of guitars and beats borrowed from John Bonham and Schoolly D. It still sounds daring and audacious to this day and is rightfully revered alongside My Bloody Valentine’s ‘Soon’ as one of those significant moments that pushed indie music into uncharted new waters. It also features backing vocals by Rachel Goswell from their Reading contemporaries Slowdive, whose guitarist Christian Savill fondly remembers the early Chapterhouse gigs as “some of the best I’ve ever seen”. Chapterhouse’s 1991 debut album Whirlpool is a shoegaze touchstone. A wonderful record that manages to be both weird and accessible at the same time and saw them collaborating with Robin Guthrie of the Cocteau Twins. Record company politics clouded the creation of the follow-up a couple years later, but Blood Music is a brilliant album and one that has aged remarkably gracefully. Its synthesis of dance and rock has frequently been cited as an influence by electronica artists such as Ulrich Schnauss, helped by the Pentamorous Metamorphosis reworking by Global Communication.

The Asteroid No.4 is an American psych/shoegaze band based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Originally formed in Philadelphia in the late 1990s, the band began its gradual relocation to the West Coast in 2011. Known for their immersive live performances—melding multi-layered guitars, reverb-heavy vocal harmonies, and a driving rhythm section—The Asteroid No.4 has built a dedicated following within the underground psychedelic community. Their prolific output has been central to their reputation: thirteen full-length albums, numerous compilation appearances, digital rarities, singles, and EPs. With each release, the band continues refining a sound that is distinctly their own. Often described as “a hypnotic hybrid of genres filtered through the kaleidoscope of all things psychedelic,” their music spans shoegaze, 12-string-driven folk-rock, Kosmische Musik, and even the occasional detour into cosmic country. The group embraces its influences openly, carrying forward the spirit of the artists who shaped their sonic identity while continually evolving their approach.