The word “off” does a lot of quiet work. It can mean a switch flipped, a feeling that won’t sit straight, a world gone slightly crooked at the edges. For Belgian shoegaze trio Ohio Mark, it became the title of their debut full-length — and the thread running through every one of its eight tracks.
“‘Off’ captures every shade of the word — in every sense imaginable,” says the band. “Off, as in a relationship abruptly switched off. Off, as in when nothing feels right, when the world turns uncanny and slightly distorted.”
Ohio Mark have been building toward this since 2018, layering reverb and noise over fading synth textures, loud guitars, and drum sequencers. Their debut single “Lucid Lake” caught the ear of Belgian post-punk outfit Whispering Sons early on, leading to two EPs on the Whispering Sons-affiliated label sentimental: “Exotism” (2019), described at the time as “an exploration of the full spectrum of loudness,” and the critically acclaimed “Whoever” (2022). Shows at Supersonic in Paris, Muziekgieterij in the Netherlands, and Dunk!Festival in Belgium followed, alongside a handful of singles and contributions to a sentimental mixtape, vol. 1 & 2.
“Off” — out March 23rd — is the next step, and a noticeably different one. The album is a collection of songs shaped by loss, regret, and the shifting emotional tides after a breakup, moving between delicate and vulnerable passages and moments that turn heavy and brooding. It’s a dynamic the trio knows how to inhabit onstage.
Musically, the record became an exercise in leaning into imperfection. “It became about embracing the beauty that exists in imperfection,” the band explains. “Sounds that feel good yet carry a subtle wrongness, something just a little astray. We learned to appreciate the randomness of it all, and how beauty and meaning can emerge from that unpredictability.”
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The songs arrived without a plan. No overarching concept, no thematic blueprint — just writing. But around the sixth track, something started clicking into place. “It’s not like there was a ‘plan’ or a ‘mission’ at first,” the band says. “But when we had about six songs, it was becoming more obvious that there was something that connected them.” Messing around with setlists hinted at something resembling a story, one built from extreme mood swings — loss, regret, disbelief, anger, all of it circling the same wound. “Somehow it shaped something that felt very raw and honest to us… but also beautiful.”
That realization carried its own strange weight. As songwriters who tend to avoid conventions, Ohio Mark say they had to allow themselves to accept coincidence — and then flesh it out. “It really wasn’t until we completed the album that we allowed ourselves to accept coincidence,” they note. “A somewhat unsettling discovery came with it: every song, lyrically, was strangely interconnected, pointing to the same themes… especially considering they were written in a stream of consciousness.”
And coincidence, it turns out, was liberating. “It’s like the perfect excuse to stay clear of the urge for perfectionism,” the band adds. “Makes it easier to stop tinkering and just let the song be.”
Leading the album rollout is the single “All Time Dog,” released February 27th. Unlike earlier Ohio Mark tracks, it stretches into a long, almost entirely instrumental passage — mesmerizing and patient, with a video that mirrors its dreamy but quietly ominous atmosphere. The song sits with the realization of things that have, almost imperceptibly, disappeared from your life.
The press around Ohio Mark has leaned into comparisons and attempts to pin down what exactly happens when reverb and noise pile up this high. Post-Punk.com described them as conjuring “a tempest of reverb and noise, evoking seastorm guitar torrents and windswept vocals” in the lineage of My Bloody Valentine. Indiestyle.be noted the way “the intense noise remains continuously interwoven with airy melodies and a kind of melancholic drone,” calling it a mark of real craft. daMusic found the term “noisepop” — usually awkward — suddenly fitting: “There is chaos, but with a golden edge… What it is, we don’t know, but that it touches us to the very depths of our hearts, we readily admit.” And Luminous Dash put it more bluntly: “The kind of music you embrace with love while its unearthly beauty delivers an uppercut to your tender soul.”
Ohio Mark have only played the “Off” songs live once so far. There’s a noticeable shift from the older stuff, they say — hard to define yet, but present. Upcoming shows include March 25th at Charlatan in Ghent with Crowd of Chairs, April 9th in Brussels (TBC), April 18th at Supersonic in Paris with Midding, and May 14th at Magasin 4 in Brussels with Ganser.
