Zoon (aka Zoongide'ewin) released his widely celebrated 'moccasin-gaze' debut LP Bleached Wavves, via Paper Bag Records on June 19, 2020. The record has been deeply praised by Brooklyn Vegan, Talkhouse, Paste, Magnet, Exclaim, American Songwriter, Under The Radar, and elicited a 9/10 album review from Exclaim Magazine who noted, "Zoon's debut album is nothing short of remarkable" and "it also blazes new trails in shoegaze, particularly in the way it implements sounds from traditional First Nations music, an inventive mixture Daniel Monkman cheekily calls "moccasin-gaze."
Paste just premiered "Brokenhead," the most recent video release from Zoon, they describe as a "transcendent experience." Brokenhead is the Ojibway reserve where Daniel spent a number of years growing up and his experiences there deeply informed the creative process of this album. "Brokenhead is music from a memory I had of leaving for the first time with my new truck that my father had helped me get," notes Daniel. "It was a big deal for me to drive by myself and all the way to BC."
Bleached Wavves spent 7 weeks at #1 on Canada's Earshot Chart this summer.
"Even though he uses the term 'moccasin-gaze' to describe his melodic wall-of reverb take on droney guitar rock, Bleached Wavves is a multi-suite concord of sound and style that's so much more than a mere rock record," enthuses Dominionated in their glowing review of the album.
Apple Music offered an extended exploration of Bleached Wavves, alongside some terrifying and haunting revelations from Daniel about some of the experiences and observations of his life that informed much of this debut.
On Bleached Wavves Zoon paints a message of hope and fortitude, lessons he learned studying the Seven Grandfather teachings after experiencing the lowest point of his life and channeling it all through the shoegaze filter with nods of inspiration to one of his favourite and formative bands, My Bloody Valentine. The creation of the LP was a testament to Daniel's ability to reverse engineer with minimal gear (his guitar and a digital delay pedal) and recording at his home the intricate sounds and layers of music texture he heard in his head. He was sometimes forced to wait days or weeks to return to working on songs, this patience and reality of 'waiting' currently something the entire world is similarly and collectively experiencing right now. All artwork for the record is by Danielle Roberts.
