A template for shoegaze was firmly established by the genre's pioneers in the late '80s and early '90s, and the majority of bands who followed in the footsteps of My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Slowdive, and the like stuck fairly close to the path set by those trailblazers. New York-based group Lightning Bug expand the parameters of shoegaze, dutifully recalling the best of some of the pillars of the shoegaze sound but also introducing new elements into the sound. Lightning Bug began as the recording project of songwriter/guitarist Audrey Kang, and enthusiastic response to their 2015 debut album, Floaters, led to some live shows in the U.K. and an unexpected cult following for the relatively anonymous band. Second album October Song sheds some of the ambient trappings of the group's earlier material, opting for a heavier synthesis of shoegaze textures, understated electronics, and dream pop production. A brief intro sounds more like a hushed combination of British folk and Marble Index-era Nico, but the band quickly change gears, diving into drifty melodies and rhythmic loops on "The Lotus Eaters" and by-the-numbers My Bloody Valentine distortion swirl on "Vision Scraps." The versatility of October Song keeps things flowing. Over the course of the album, Kang and her cohort get into misty and reverb-heavy vocal harmonies, lo-fi textures, and songwriting that recall both the obscured alien landscapes of Grouper and the plainspoken melancholy of Broadcast. The core of Kang's songwriting holds Lightning Bug's various approaches together and allows the album to move unjarringly from pastoral guitar chords on "September Song" to the synth arpeggios of "October Song, Pt. II." The entire record is carefully paced, gently walking the listener through a myriad of colors and sounds. It's an album as exciting as it is graceful, with superb songs meeting unique production choices. Ambient pop and shoegaze revivalism can both tend toward lazy replications of the greatness that inspires them, but October Song starts out inspired and builds from there into uncharted territory.