The mind can be a terribly indulgent landlord: old arguments settle in, borrowed expectations take the best room, and worry renews its lease without ever paying a cent. After a while, the prospect of having less begins to sound rather luxurious. Clearing a little space means deciding which possessions, pressures, and private catastrophes deserve to stay, and which have been enjoying our hospitality for far too long.
Sacramento’s Soft Science consider that possibility on Without, a psychedelic excursion from their fifth album, Sand, released September 4 through Shelflife Records in North America and Spinout Nuggets in the UK. Today, Post-Punk.com premieres the song’s video, created by Italian visual artist Francesca Bonci, whose overlapping images give the band’s reflections on letting go a wonderfully fluid form.
The Northern California quintet brings together Katie Haley on lead vocals and percussion, brothers Matt Levine on lead guitar and Ross Levine on guitar and backing vocals, and partners Tony Cale on drums and Becky Cale on bass and backing vocals. Frequent collaborator Hans Munz contributes electronics. Their combination of dream pop, shoegaze, and indie rock balances layered harmonies and guitar textures with a rhythm section intent on keeping things moving.
For Without, reversed rhythm guitars and Munz’s electronic contribution to the breakdown carry that approach into more psychedelic territory. The reversal extends an experiment begun with the lead guitar on album opener Spinning, giving the group another way to bend familiar materials around Haley’s deceptively simple question of what we can live without.
Haley explains:
“‘Without’ is one of my favorite songs on ‘Sand’. It drifts slightly outside our usual orbit, built around a lyric that is both simple and quietly expansive: “There are things I do without, there are things that I can be without.” Those few words open a much larger question: in a world always urging us to want more, what can we release?
Maybe it’s the pull of possessions, things in the world beyond our control, or the worry, destructive thoughts, and stressful situations we carry within us. Over the past few years, I’ve become more intentional about what I absorb and what I allow to take root in my mind, protecting space for my mental health and happiness. Sometimes less leaves room for more, and this sonic, psychedelic song floats through that possibility.”
Bonci gives those thoughts a visual counterpart through faces, tree branches, birds, and dancing silhouettes, superimposed across washes of orange, violet, blue, and green. Figures become transparent, colors turn inside out, and circles of light spread across the picture. The images suggest a mind continually receiving impressions, with each new layer changing the appearance of what was already there. The breakdancing figures bring a playful physical presence to that restless accumulation.
Bonci’s previous collaborators include The Dandy Warhols, Federale, the project of The Brian Jonestown Massacre’s Collin Hegna, Pete International Airport, Slowdive’s Rachel Goswell, and Tombstones In Their Eyes. For Soft Science, the connection came through Shauna at Shameless Promotion PR. Ross Levine proposed the breakdancing silhouettes as the band and Bonci developed the concept, and the group were delighted with her interpretation.
Discussing the recording and the decision to make a conceptual video, Ross says:
“We used a reversed lead guitar on ‘Spinning,’ then experimented with reversing the rhythm guitars on ‘Without,’ which created a great vibe. Hans’ contribution to the breakdown is also one of the highlights of the entire record. For the ‘Without’ video, we wanted to move beyond a traditional band performance and create a more conceptual piece.”
Of the finished video, he adds: “We’re very happy with the result and feel the visuals deepen the experience of the song.”
Watch the video for Without below:
Across its ten songs, Sand places that question of release within a wider examination of love, memory, and identity under pressure. Relationships shift, old patterns repeat, and the effort to be heard can leave people circling the same unresolved conversation. The record also allows room for clarity, devotion, hope, and renewal, finding reasons to keep choosing connection even when its terms remain uncertain. Soft Science push further into the noisier reaches of dream pop while keeping melody, harmony, and forward motion central to their work. For a band so interested in the things that slip away, they make an appealing case for choosing what goes first.
Their stated influences span Ride, Ivy, Stereolab, The Field Mice, The Mighty Lemon Drops, Catherine Wheel, My Bloody Valentine, and Pale Saints. The blend of pop immediacy and guitar density also offers an inviting point of entry for listeners drawn to Alvvays, Lush, The Primitives, The Sundays, Dentist, Winter, and Mo Dotti.
The album follows Highs and Lows (2011), Detour (2014), Maps (2018), and Lines (2023). Their discography also includes a 2015 split seven-inch with The Luxembourg Signal, along with 2018 recordings of The House of Love’s I Don’t Know Why I Love You and Northern Picture Library’s Paris.
Soft Science have recorded live sessions for KEXP, WFMU, and Part-Time Punks, and performed at New York Popfest, Paris Popfest, The Big Takeover’s 35th Anniversary show, Schellraiser Festival, Tremolo Fest, and Dreamgaze PDX, alongside other festival appearances across the United States. Their song Undone, from Maps, was also featured in Sound Opinions’ Shoegaze Genre Dissection on August 21, 2026, Show 1082.
Sand is out now on vinyl, CD, and digital formats. North American listeners can order the orange vinyl edition, CD, or download through Bandcamp; UK and European listeners can order physical editions through Spinout Nuggets. The album is also available through Spotify, Apple Music, and other major streaming and download platforms.
Listen to Sand below and order the album here:
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