Shoegaze duo Chainlacing drop ‘Simulacra’ ahead of debut album release

Shoegaze-inflected lo-fi ambient duo Chainlacing will release their debut album, “Messuage”, on 19 June 2026 via specialist dark music label These Hands Melt and is available for pre-order now. To accompany the announcement, the band has unveiled a video for the single “Simulacra”. 

The band said about “Simulacra”:

“Inspired by the lush rural landscapes of northern New England. A lyrical and textural examination of the fabric of memory and our innate need to have a meaningful connection to our collective past.”

“Messuage” was composed and performed by founding members Lauren Crosser and Rick Martel. Chainlacing was started in New Hampshire, where Lauren would travel from Boston to record guitar ideas in Rick’s home studio. They gravitate toward lo-fi ambient guitar and synthesisers, melodic drones, reverb, and gloom-like shoegaze, goth, or industrial recorded on 4-tracks.

Recently joined by Joe Streeter of Have a Nice Life, Nick Watter of Slow Quit, and Dan Hartel of Still Life Sounds, Chainlacing has developed an immersive live sound with the heaviness of funereal doom, the sonic atmosphere of shoegaze, and the vulnerability of dream pop and folk.

They’ve released several singles, including collaborations with Heaven Process (former member of The Chameleons), Illudium (Prophecy Productions), Ship Burial and GLASSEYEZ. Their most recent physical release, “Attersee” EP, is available on tape through Interluxe Distribution.

“Messuage” will be available digitally, on CD with a 3-panel panoramic digisleeve limited to 200 copies, and an LP on trans-glass vinyl limited 150 copies. 

PRE-ORDER “Messuage” now via https://thesehandsmelt.shop/

“Messuage” tracklist: 
1. Petty Please
2. Overdetermined
3. Preacher
4. Fragile
5. Sublimate
6. Stay
7. Simulacra
8. Compulsion
9. Empty Cages

Lauren and Rick also participate in other Massachusetts-area bands. Lauren drums in a heavy shoegaze band called Slow Quit, based in Boston, and Rick plays guitar in Lowell grunge band Tysk Tysk Task.