Finally on wax, Shiner, Pontiac Streator and Ben Bondy’s West Mineral debut as Shinetiac is a real downtempo pleasure, re-imagining classic Trip Hop with a gooey cybernetic core, hugely recommended for anyone on the line from Hysterical Love Project to Seefeel, Olive to A.S.O., Ulla to Arovane.
All three members of Shinetiac are best known for their tenure in the neo-ambient weeds, gathering bounties for 3XL, Quiet Time, Motion Ward and of course Huerco S.’s West Mineral. Anyone familiar with their solo deployments will have already clocked their obsessions with classic dreampop, trip-hop and cloud rap, and those influences are fully thrust into the foreground here, with the more trad ambient elements used as little more than decoration. ‘Star Frog Dilla’ opens the set and combs illusory Olive-like vocal harmonies over a jumble of choppy jazz samples and sirens, with a glitch-heavy beat that harks back to an earlier, simpler iteration of IDM. What makes it so inviting is that Shinetiac fashion a loveletter to pre-internet cultural collisions, pooling their empathetic energies in a lushly amorphous slant on ambient dance strung between classic Trip Hop, HD late ‘90s / early ‘00s electronic music x vaporous hypermodernism.
Shinetiac: Not All Who Wander Are Lost, out now at boomkat.com
@shinetiac@west_mineral
Staff Pick: @shinetiac - live at café blue gelato
A dome-twisting set that was first performed and recorded at Nowadays in Ridgewood, Queens last September. Video by Finn Hansen @innerfreekling
Check out the release on Nina.
#electronic
#ambient
#cafe
#matcha
Good morning. Wake up with “live at café blue gelato”, the newest world from Shinetiac.
Originally recorded and performed live at the OST x Pacific Mode party at Nowadays in September, this release follows their sophomore outing, the 2025 headphone masterpiece Infiltrating Roku City, and opens the door to an entirely new sound.
Per the artist statement:
“Somewhere miles outside of Roku City Jessica is sipping her perfectly steamed chai latté in the window of her neighborhood second-wave coffee shop, Café Blue Gelato in salt-stained Uggs. It’s a rainy but cool early winter evening, and her favorite local band, Shinetiac, is playing the monthly open-mic night.
She’s fully blissed out, sinking into the perfectly worn-in chair with a collapsed spring. Shinetiac’s sounds fill the room with pine-scented yankee candles & drip coffee. Acoustic guitars strum softly, Jaco Pastorius bass licks pulse through the floorboards, Jessica Pratt vocals chopped & screwed hum across tables. Soft whistles and somber voices set the tone.
The night is perfect—but she still can’t wait to be sitting next to her Amazon electric fireplace watching Mormon Wives in her beige sweatsuit and knitted pompom beanie…”
Out today, December 19, 2025, “live at café blue gelato” is available to stream on all major platforms. Indulge in the full experience on YouTube. Purchase on Nina or Bandcamp please.
Music by Brint, Rory, Ben & Finn
Artwork and video by Finn Hansen @innerfreekling
Additional lyrics by Vegan Gavin & Natalia Panzer
Mastered by Ike Zwanikken @lucky_bloke
Supported by #You #ThankYou
@shinetiac@ben_bondy@brinnttt
shinetiac ‘Roku City FM 5/14/24’ mix ⓪⑥⑤
A little over a year ago the boys of shinetiac took a trip to Roku City. While researching their musical insights, the good folks over at Roku City FM invited the band into their studios to spread their shinety wisdom over the air. Here are some words below describing the bands experience.
“We remember crossing the bluemosa bridge for the first time and seeing the lights of Roku City. It was unlike any other place we had seen before. Both monster and human coexistence One of those city moments that’s with us forever.”
listen to the archive via the 3xl pod
💜🌃
shinetiac - infiltrating roku city (ouest083) is out now 🌃🌉
~ the target is set, the mainframe is hacked – Billie, cloaked in her hoodie, stares through the crystalline fog at the system she's dedicated her essence to corrupting. the hex-key? the cryptic sounds of shinetiac etched in pavement and tatted on the wall. we have now infiltrated roku city. ~
Shinetiac returns to West Mineral with the follow up to their debut album, “Not all Who Wander are Lost” and brings us “Infiltrating Roku City." Initially composed and rehearsed as a live set for a 29 Speedway x Conditioner show in Brooklyn, and performed again at Philly’s Spindrift, the Shinetiac boys spent the winter of 2024 taking these odds and ends of recordings and jams and sculpting them into something beautiful, critical, and earnest all at once.
released March 6, 2025
mastered by Rashad Becker
vinyl distribution by @boomkatonline
art by @innerfreekling@innerfreekling featured on bluemosa
goo age featured on crisis angel (spotify version)
@fru_tto featured on whatever
additional production by @mystictearz on clublyfe (hulu)
vinyl & digital purchase links in bio
streaming on all platforms
