This record’s opener Someday is just 60 seconds, but it hits like a cinematic explosion in miniature, opening with widescreen shoegaze and then slamming you in the face with a screamo yell. For the Faint of Heart is a massive solo bedroom operation with a huge sound, raw distortion and sighing synths.

Portals leans into a grungy swagger feeling rooted in guitar-overdubs era shoegaze, but with glitchy electronic flares that help it breathe anew. Wasting kicks in with heavy, fast drums as Alex McDonnell holds a single vocal note like a tether to sanity and the guitars howl underwater drenched in aching, echoing feedback. Scary captures the happy, hazy dancefloor magic of Madchester impossibly well, and at 32 minutes total, the album flies by. It balances vast echoing soundscapes with moments of subtle intimacy, at once both soft and loud, thrashing and ethereal. Even at its most distorted and blown-out, there’s an underlying gentleness to it all, like the feeling of being excited to witness a coming storm rather than afraid. The music surges and sways like massive clouds across the sky, but comforts even in the chaos, avoiding shoegaze cliché by remaining nimble and varied. Songs are sometimes over in a minute, and others are built from MPC-style loops that feel closer to hip-hop than rock. One track will be pure feedback-drenched ache, the next a shimmering piece of cloudy ambience, or a beat-heavy throwback to the Baggy era. Sometimes the electronic touches subtly support the illusion of a live band, and at other times they step into the foreground and push things into entirely different territory, but Future Magics maintains a firm grip on atmosphere throughout. It’s a record made for those who love their walls of noise slow and spacious, and while it may be brief at just over 30 minutes, it leaves you feeling like you feeling overwhelmed and soothed, like wandering through a sudden glorious cleansing rainstorm.