Tag Archives: yawning balch

The Real Gone End Of Year Round-Up, 2025

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We’ve reached the end of another year, and for Real Gone, 2025 was a special one. Not only did we celebrate our sixteenth year online, but we gained a truckload of new and regular supporters – both from an industry perspective and in terms of regular readership. Our visitor stats have seen a huge increase on 2024, and the materials we’ve been sent for review have been more varied than ever.

We’ve heard a lot of enjoyable albums and EPs over the past twelve months, but as is traditional, we’ve whittled our favourites down to ten, and then given a well deserved shout out to a few titles we think are also worth checking out. As always, our picks for the best of the year are limited to releases we actually reviewed – it’s only fair. We hope you’ll check out some of the artists and releases featured below, if you’ve not already done so.

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SOFTSUN – Eternal Sunrise

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The debut album from desert rock duo SoftSun was one of the greatest releases of 2024. Guitarist Gary Arce had already put his name to some really enjoyable work with improvisational collective Yawning Balch over the course of the year leading up to SoftSun’s unveiling but, as part of that duo, there was something truly special about the way he was able to weave deep psych and desert rock sounds against Pia Isaaksen’s vocals. It was a release that set a high bar, but also one that suggested a “lightning in a bottle” moment; that a follow up might not follow especially quickly…or even at all.

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THE REAL GONE SINGLES BAR #120

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This visit to the Real Gone Singles Bar sees the return of three familiar names, but their current tunes find the musicians sounding as good as ever. There’s always a pleasure in watching artists you admire grow, but in the case of singer songwriter Roisin McCarney, the Scottish singer shares one of her most mature sounding tracks to date. In terms of newer names, you’ll find a genre-bending act from Margate sharing an absolute banger, a couple of underground singer-songwriters, and even a perfectly pitched piece of early 60s inspired, guitar laden pop from Australia. As always, it’s been an absolute pleasure to pick the best singles for sharing, and we hope you find something new to enjoy.

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YAWNING BALCH – Volume Three

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The first two albums by Yawning Balch – the side project featuring members of Yawning Man with Fu Manchu guitarist Bob Balch – yielded some fabulous music. The lengthy, improvised jams filled a pair of records with brilliant, almost ambient desert rock sounds; a whole world of sonic textures that really capture a moment, but really allow listener to be really drawn in by the band’s almost cinematic qualities.

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SOFTSUN – Daylight In The Dark

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A new name for 2024, SoftSun are a doom-laden shoegaze/desert rock trio featuring a few familiar faces. Guitarist Gary Arce will be known to some as a member of both Yawning Man and Yawning Balch; vocalist Pia Isaksen is a member of Superlynx, and Dan Joeright is the drummer with Earth Moon Earth. Between them, they’ve created something that sounds different enough from their parent acts to make SoftSun an immediately effective side hustle.

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