Night Swimming 
Melting, Sometimes Bleeding

Andrew Ross, contributor
 

Melting, Sometimes Bleeding (out via Venn Records) by the UK band Night Swimming is a dense, atmospheric shoegaze record that balances beauty with emotional unease. Across its five tracks, the band builds walls of shimmering guitar and submerged vocals that feel less focused on hooks than on creating a mood you sink into.

 

The EP’s strongest moments come when it resists easy catharsis. Songs like “Submarine” and “Nothing Safe Is Technicolour” simmer with tension instead of exploding, giving the music a claustrophobic, almost dreamlike quality. Meg Jones’ vocals work less like a traditional “lead voice” and more like an emotional frequency running through the entire EP. 

 

The defining trait is restraint: she rarely pushes for power in an obvious way, but instead leans into a controlled, almost submerged delivery that fits the shoegaze / dream-pop texture. The production is layered and immersive, with melodies emerging slowly through repetition and texture.

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While the back half occasionally drifts too far into atmosphere over momentum, the EP succeeds because it never feels nostalgic for its own influences. There are traces of classic shoegaze and dream-pop throughout, but the emotional tone is more exhausted and modern than romantic. 

 

At its best, Melting, Sometimes Bleeding feels cold, hazy, and deeply absorbing — an EP more interested in emotional immersion than clean resolution.