Šeptej nahlas Český shoegaze mezi Východem a Západem

Bands with their backs turned to the audience, eyes downcast to the jumble of guitar pedals on the floor and ethereal vocals drowned in noise. No other musical style has adapted to the post-colonial changes as well as shoegaze. Newfound freedoms were accompanied by deafening guitar distortion.

A completely new independent scene was born in the Czech Republic: bands like Toyen, Ecstasy of St. Theresa, Here, Naked Souls and Sebastians were miles away from anything that had been happening in music before. And they were playing in places they would hardly have thought possible a few years ago: churches in Prague, squats in Switzerland, the CBGB club in New York and the BBC and MTV studios in London. The intoxicating sound no longer hinted at the boundaries of the Iron Curtain and became an expression of an ecstasy difficult to describe. Prague took its place alongside London as the capital of shoegaze.

In his book Whisper Out Loud, music journalist Miloš Hroch tells the story of a unique era whose sound died out before it could really begin.