Have you ever put on an album and suddenly felt like you were the main character in a slow-burning indie film about loneliness? That’s Breakfast, the latest EP from Hong Kong-based Besides. It doesn’t just play in the background; it seeps into the room, filling every quiet space with the kind of melancholy that makes you want to lie down on the floor and stare at the ceiling for an undetermined amount of time. It’s a mix of slacker rock, shoegaze, slowcore, and downtempo all melted into one beautifully lethargic package, like a dream you can’t quite remember, but you’re certain it was important.
The EP opens with the title track that feels like it rolled out of bed at 2 PM and immediately lit a cigarette. Guitars start, buzz and drift in like they’re unsure if they want to commit to the song or just dissolve into static, and the vocals are delivered with the kind of half-conscious murmur that makes you lean in, only to realize the words are slipping through your fingers. Everything about it is loose and slightly frayed at the edges, but that’s precisely what makes it perfect. It’s the musical equivalent of wearing an oversized thrifted sweater that somehow makes you look effortlessly cool instead of deeply unkempt.
If Breakfast invites you into its world, Chocolate keeps you floating somewhere just above it. The shoegaze dial is cranked up here. The guitars blur into each other, reverb stretches everything into infinity, and the vocals sink even further into the mix, like they’re being transmitted through an old, half-functional radio. The lyrics are there, but good luck making them out. Honestly, though, does it even matter? This isn’t a song you listen to; it’s a song you experience. The kind of track that makes you nostalgic for something you never actually lived through.
Observations is where Breakfast reaches peak introspection. The slowcore influence takes center stage, stripping everything back to its rawest form. Sparse guitar, minimal percussion, and just enough space between notes to make you feel like time itself is stretching. It’s the kind of song that plays while someone in a movie stares out a rain-smeared window, lost in thought, as neon reflections flicker against the glass. If you somehow weren’t already in your feelings, Observations make sure you get there. Hope you weren’t planning on feeling normal today.
The final track, Lemonade, doesn’t so much end the EP as it slowly drifts away, leaving you suspended in its wake. The downtempo influences creep in with warped synths, soft percussion, and a hypnotic vocal line that feels like it’s pulling you somewhere between wakefulness and sleep. There’s no resolution here, no grand statement; just a feeling that lingers, unresolved, like a thought you almost understood but lost as soon as you tried to put it into words. And somehow, that’s exactly the right way to close it out.
Breakfast EP doesn’t ask for your attention. It doesn’t try to impress you with big hooks or flashy production. It just exists, perfectly formed, like a half-remembered dream or a vague, nagging feeling that you’ve been here before. It’s hazy, intimate, and emotionally distant all at once: the kind of music that makes you want to disappear into a city at night, hands in your pockets, nowhere to be.
If you’re into shoegaze, slowcore, or anything that sounds like it was recorded in a bedroom with the lights off, you need this EP in your life. And even if you aren’t, this EP is a great way to start your day. Like breakfast.
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About the Author
A tenured media critic known working as a ghost writer, freelance critic for publications in the US and former lead writer of Atop The Treehouse. Reviews music, film and TV shows for media aggregators.
