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What is it with shoegazers and cats? The Pale Saints ' The Comforts of Madness  features a fine Siamese on the front and here we have Chapterhouse 's Whirlpool  with a curled up sleeping cat on the cover, albeit a cat which bears (to me at least) an uncanny similarity to the foetal position adopted by the dog which was entombed in ash as it was desperately trying to chew through its chain as Vesuvius erupted over Pompeii. Cats are nice. They are warm and fuzzy. They are clever and comforting, silent and soothing. But cats can also be sinister and ...

Frankie Rose has played a key part in bands that embraced big-in-'08 C86 garage pop sound ( Vivian Girls , Crystal Stilts , Dum Dum Girls ), and her 2010 self-titled album with backing band the Outs reflected close knowledge of that specific style. On "Know Me", the first single from her forthcoming solo LP Interstellar , she's looking to the past again-- only, this time, she's drawing from the sweeping romantic shoegaze-y sounds of the 1980's, her voice cloaked in reverb and the guitars wrapped in the same soft gauze that marked missives from bands like the Cure and unsung ...

One of the defining imprints behind the current indie pop boom, it would be churlish to pin Captured Tracks down amongst the cardigan-clad legions. Sticking to its guns, the Brooklyn label has supported music it dearly loves building up a back catalogue that moves from noise pop to dream pop, with a touch of electronics along the way. Retaining a love for the physical format, the pop song and a fuzzed up guitar riff Captured Tracks has constructed an identity without allowing themselves to be pigeon-holed. Believe it or not, but for a good decade or so the shoegaze genre ...

One of the musical trends heard in countless bedroom pop groups in the past year is the obsession over the early innovators of shoegaze and dream-pop, most noticeably Cocteau Twins. Thanks to labels like Captured Tracks -- reissuing a slew of amazing post-gaze bands (Should, Half String, deardarkhead) -- we should see an expansion of new acts incorporating everything in the 4AD catalog. Pale Saints are one of the bands I'd love to see someone tackle (good luck!) as they are a bit more dynamic than most of the wall-of-sound influencers of that era. Here's one of their most driving ...

It has only been a little more than a year since I've begun to understand the possibilities and revel in the beauty of shoegaze.  It can really be a mesmerizing genre, and like many styles of music over the course of time, artists make their small modifications to try and keep things fresh, interesting, and relevant.  Many of the founding shoegazers from the early '90s like Pale Saints, Slowdive, and Ride used heavy distortion and fuzzy textures to concoct dazzling sonic tidal waves, and it was incredible.  Now, with musical advancements and the rise of computers, artists have more ...

Shed a tear, watch it fade...'   Secret Shine (once known as Amelia's Dream) were a Bristol-based band who recorded four 7" singles / EPs for Sarah in the early to mid 1990s. Although their early material was quite typically 'Sarah', in terms of its pop shape, indie form and twee sound, the band fairly quickly drifted into effects-laden shoegaze territory with later releases, especially the 1993 album 'Untouched' (Sarah #615). Indeed, even on this first single,  'After Years'  (Sarah #53, 1991), you can hear shades of Pale Saints, Lush.. even, in fact, The Stone Roses (whenever I play this record ...

Of all the shoegaze albums I possess (and there's not that many to be quite honest) this one has to be the one which drives me to the point of greatest ambivalence. I find it alternately frustrating and irritating: the former because it doesn't ever seem to get going; the latter becasue it adopts too many little tricks to make it seem cool, and these often detract from the integrity of the music. Truth is, The Comforts of Madness isn't really shoegaze at all. It is closer to the dream pop of bands like the Cocteau Twins ...

EDM Night People [Western Vinyl; 2011] by Joe Hemmerling Rating: Early Day Miners, a shifting collective centered around front man and only consistent member Daniel Burton, enjoyed a taste of the limelight during the post-rock blitz of the early aughts. Borrowing equally from the likes of Tortoise and Low, their early records offered a ragged, somnolent take on sprawling Americana. Let Us Garlands Bring , their sophomore release, was a minor critical darling and secured them a loyal cult following. Subsequent records flirted with more recognizably pop structures; song-lengths contracted into the four-to-five-minute range; vocals, once hushed and whispered on the ...

A compilation of the Saints early EPs, that was only released in Japan. It became an obsessive must have compilation for their fans. It is catchy and intricate. This is demonstrated in the opening track The Sight of You. It has great melody and brilliant guitar work. Mother Might is a very slow haunting track, which I think is not really the Pale Saints at their best. There is a jangly pop moment in Colours and Shapes. The centrepiece is Half-Life, Remembered , which for many Pale Saints fans is their most defining moment. The album is very varied. The tracklisting ...

It's 100 degrees outside today. Yuck. Hey pals! It's July and I have a new mix to share with you! This month's mix is pretty JUMBO compared to the typical length of previous mixes, but I could couldn't bring myself to cut it down any further. Personal new favorites here include a new track from Bleached (Ex-Mika Miko sisters), Dear Marje (A+ Tiger Trap worship; my new favorite band and yours, too), and a new one off of the new Veronica Falls LP (Sure to be one of the best of the year). Some old gems ...

Apart from the recent resurgence of dream-pop and 4AD-influenced pop bands, you never hear about Leeds-based Pale Saints . They are/were masters of pop and atmosphere but never made a dent in the U.S. market. This post is designed to educate and remind people of how inspiring and progressive the band's albums and EPs are -- especially when the label was pushing artists like Pixies, Lush and Dead Can Dance in favor of the quartet -- leaving Pale Saints in college radio dust. Here's one of their strongest and best singles "Throwing Back The Apple", taken from the masterpiece ...

On the eve of the release of their debut self-titled album, we caught up with Dinamo Azari and Alphose Alixander Lanza III from Azari & III to get an insight into their musical and creative influences. They compiled the following list - an inventory of music, videos and general sources of inspiration. Azari & III will perform for the first time in Australia as part of the Vivid Live festival, and release their debut self-titled album on July 29 down under via Modular Recordings. Catch Azari & III live : Fri 27 May - @ VIVID w/Bag Raiders, The Swiss, Beni - Sydney Opera House - TICKETS Sat ...

Another great podcast from 6forty Project – more treats for those who miss the early 90s/shoegaze. Tracklist Kitchens of Distinction  -  Three To Beam Up Underground Lovers  -  I Was right Pale Saints  -  Half Life Remembered Butterfly Child  -  Botany Bay Moose  -  Last Night I Fell Again Bailter Space  -  Get Lost Majesty [...]

Hola. This time around I am mixing some of my favorites from the early nineties and all of them are massively guitar driven. Most of them layered with thick, hard guitar walls. It was called (and still is) shoegaze, because the band members usually were just gazing at their shoes (maybe just shy or anti-social) during live shows while hammering the guitars and making massive noise. And usually they were wearing horizontal striped long sleeve t-shirts. And had Prince Valiant haircuts and most likely read Melody Maker. What a time. Good times. We go from the brilliant Ride to not ...