London band Whitelands, who describe themselves as “bedroom dreampop and shoegaze by Black dudes”, celebrate signing to Sonic Catherdral with a luscious new single 'Born In Understanding'. The new track is deeply atmospheric with shimmering guitar textures, distant vocals and layers of ethereal noise, released on a label run by Ride's Andy Bell and mastered by Slowdive's Simon Scott, the track sits well within the shoegaze tradition. The band go on to explain their affinity with the often less recognised Black pioneers of the genre: “A few years back a review site called our music ‘soul-gaze’, it was a cool term for us, and the writer talked about how much we reminded him of The Veldt,” bandleader Etienne states. “Discovering those bands was such a trip to me. I assumed there wouldn’t be that many Black bands as, even now, it is a predominantly white genre, but having someone like Rudy Tambala [of AR Kane] just on the other side of London from us feels so bizarre in a good way.” -Toby Evans-Jesra