Been a while since we did a Shoegazer Sunday, but this classic Chapterhouse track popped up because Saint Marie records is re-releasing the Mesmerize EP (their very first) that it’s off of.
The structural similarity makes me think that Echodrone was familiar with this track when they penned “A Ghost And A Walkman.”
As is the now annual tradition, enjoy Stellarscope’s version of “Silent Night”:
Merry Christmas!
It’s always hard to find appropriate darkgaze stuff for the Halloween season, but I think Ceremony’s “It’s too Late” has a nicely Gothy tinge to it:
Wednesday was the Autumn Equinox, and I was surprised by a crisp, clear morning here in Austin that was actually cool, meaning we were getting Fall on the first day of Fall, and that’s something that never happens.
Given the cloudless sky, I thought this was appropriate:
Pygmalion is probably my least favorite Slowdive album, with it’s sparse, minimalist, almost ambient feel, but “Blue Skied An’ Clear” is one of the standouts.
On September 2, 1991, Creation Records released Slowdive’s debut album Just for a Day. This was the first Shoegaze album I had ever heard, and in many ways is still my favorite.
1991, you may remember, was a banner year for music. Everything interesting got slapped with the “Alternative” label, but Slowdive was far from the Seattle sound of Nirvana and Pearl Jam dominating the airwaves. The first track I heard off it was “Catch the Breeze”:
From it’s echoey, moody opening to it’s soaring wall of guitar ending I was hooked. But I truly loved closing track “Primal.”
The first seventy-five seconds are the most beautiful music Slowdive ever created, while the rest builds to a melancholy crescendo of loss.
Shoegaze is The Genre That Refuses To Die, and I think Just For A Day is a huge cornerstone.
I hear Slowdive will be releasing a new album as soon as they can book a run at a vinyl pressing plant.
White Coal Addiction hails from Belgium, and are described as “cold wave, post-punk and a touch of goth.” Researching “cold wave” lead me to a string of unhelpful, example-free Wikipedia entries, but it seems to be some sort of early 80s gloomy European Goth synth. Anyway, enjoy the moody “A Project.”
I rather liked last week’s shot of The Luxembourg Signal, so here’s a track off their album Blue Field with a subject Twin Peaks fans may find of interest…
I know nothing about The Luxembourg Signal except they seem to be a transatlantic ensemble. “When All That We Hold Decays” is off their album The Long Now.
I know next to nothing about Galaxina, except they’re probably named after the Dorothy Stratton movie, and I think they’re based in Spain. “Oceano” appears to be off their Evasion y victoria album.