Category Archives: Shoegaze Spotlight
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Adorable remains one of the great mysteries in shoegaze lore. An incredibly talented band of handsome young gents who were in the right place (the UK) at the right time (1991-1994) on the right record label (Creation) making the right music (well-crafted noise pop); Adorable should have been, for all intents and purposes, colossal. Yet somehow the foursome managed to be glaringly overlooked, dropped by Creation and – within 3 short years – had imploded and split up permanently. And while today they are generally remembered as a seminal shoegaze band (despite their now-ironic tendency to dismiss the genre completely), the fact of the matter is they were ignored by most, snubbed by the press, and snuffed out before they even had a chance. What happened?
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Ultra Vivid Scene was an American dream pop band started by Kurt Ralske (former Nothing but Happiness and Crash guitarist) in 1987. UVS’s music was considered to be fringe shoegaze, at best; or rather, unclassifiable altogether. Over time, UVS has been more and more frequently cited as hugely influential and Ralske has become something of legend and unsung hero in recent musical history. His genius for pop melodies and willingness to experiment with that genius resulted in music that truly sounded like nothing else at that time. To modern ears, the music still sounds fresh and original, and Ralske’s vision has been called ahead of its time by many.
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Originally from Chicago, identical twin brothers Taylor & Jamison MacKillop of Funeral Home now live apart – one is in Virginia and the other in Indiana – but the two are still able to make their music virtually. Since splitting up their previous band Tiger Cub, the brother duo has taken on a more developed, richer sound; this sound can be described as falling somewhere in between dark synth-centric post punk and shoegaze-influenced fuzzed out lo-fi pop. That’s a lot of descriptive words, but genre lines continue to blur and blur. This isn’t a bad thing; words will give a framework, but these days the golden rule of “listen and judge for yourself” is more applicable than ever.
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Klaus Von Barrel is the mastermind behind The KVB, a musical project that fully encapsulates the darkness that is inherently found in the shoegaze sound. The KVB is based in the UK (London/South Hampton), and has a strong presence there in the independent post punk and dark wave scenes. Von Barrel’s somber, mysterious lyrics, clever lo-fi synth work and post punk attitude combine to create a dark shoegazey force to be reckoned with.
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Violens is the Brooklyn-based trio of Jorge Elbrecht, Iddo Arad, and Myles Matheny. Formed in 2007, Violens (pronounced “vy-lenz”) has become known for their gorgeously psych-pop guitar sounds, shoegaze-y atmospheres and synth-based vocal harmonies. The band self-describes their music as being about nightmares, the passing of time, and accounts of hallucinations; they cite influences as diverse as 60s psychpop, thrash metal, and Miami freestyle. Essentially – they are trippy.
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Dead Leaf Echo is a NYC band consisting of members Ana Breton (Guitar, Keys, Vox), Christo Buffam. (Guitar, Keys), LG Galleon (Guitar, Bass, Vox) and J.M. Silverman (Drums). DLE began as an art project, eventually blossoming into more in 2006. The band has matured rapidly and released numerous EPs, singles and remixes in addition to creating a collection of experimental film videos unveiling their unique style of Nouveau Wave. Their sound is often described as dark dream pop swirled with new wave and grounded in shoegaze.
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Beach Fossils is a Brooklyn-based group, formed in early 2009 by Dustin Payseur. After signing to Captured Tracks, the band straightaway went on an extensive tour across the United States, playing an incredible amount of shows and, in so doing, gained quite a devoted fan base nationally.
In May of 2009, their debut LP, Beach Fossils, gained favorable reviews and the band became known for their jangly, single note guitar style, dusted with summer-fueled romance.
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The trio of Charlie Hilton, Patrick Adams & Jacob Portrait make up the Portland based Blouse, a band that, along with a handful of others, has recently redefined the sound of darker shoegaze and dream pop. Blouse uses a warehouse space to essentially run their band out of – meeting, practising and recording there. The project started in the summer of 2010, after Los Angeles native Charlie Hilton met Patrick Adams in art school. They began spending nights at the warehouse recording with Jacob Portrait (Unknown Mortal Orchestra; he has also worked Starfucker & The Dandy Warhols).
Their full length self titled debut LP was released via Brooklyn record label Captured Tracks (also home to The Soft Moon, Wild Nothing, Beach Fossils, and so on) on November 1st, 2011. ‘Into Black’, the band’s instantaneously catchy and dark first single, was followed up by the sunny yet deceitful track, ‘Shadow’ (which was released via Sub Pop).
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Bloody Knives is an industrial shoegaze group from Austin, Texas, and consists of Preston Maddox (bass, voice, keyboards, samples, programming), Jake McCown (drums, noise, programming, art) and Jim Moon (sound manipulator). Describing their sound is not easy, but it falls somewhere in between heavy punk and industrial music, combined with blurred electronics, shoegaze atmospherics, and 8-bit glitch melodies. It’s been said that the band creates a wave of sound that is both in-your-face and completely out-there, with Maddox’s vocals sounding as if they are coming from another dimension, and this statement echoes how most of their fans feel – in fact, it’s precisely this element that initially draws their listeners in.
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Airiel is a shoegaze band based in Chicago, Illinois, The band originally began as a solo project by Jeremy Wrenn in Bloomington, Indiana, in 1997. This followed the break-up of Wrenn’s previous shoegaze band, Black Olive, who released one album called Verge. For a few years, Airiel was a duo: Wrenn on guitar, Sean Delaney on bass and a drum machine. Wrenn then relocated to Chicago and brought in Cory Osborne (bass) and John Rungger (drums), followed by Chris De Brizzio (guitar).
Through Clairecords (Sacramento), Airiel released a series of four-song EPs titled Winks & Kisses. The EPs were also sold as a limited edition boxed set, capturing the evolution of Airiel in its current form. Their CDs are consistently some of the top sellers of the label, and the Frosted EP in particular sold out incredibly fast. The group has also been asked to contribute to several compilation CDs, including Never Lose That Feelingby Club AC30 (U.K.).
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Nadja is a Canadian duo featuring multi-instrumentalist Aidan Baker (guitars, vocals, woodwinds, piano, drum programming) and bassist/vocalist Leah Buckareff. Nadja was originally conceived in 2003 in Toronto, Canada as a solo project by Baker to explore the heavier/noisier side of his experimental/ambient guitar-based music. Buckareff later joined in 2005 to bring the project out of the studio and into live settings. Baker himself has released numerous albums on independent labels from around the world and is the author of two books of poetry, two poetry chapbooks, and has published poetry, fiction and criticism in various international and scholarly journals. Baker and Buckareff currently reside in Berlin.
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Formed in 1988, deardarkhead are a trio based in the Atlantic City, New Jersey area and consists of: guitarist Kevin Harrington, drummer Robert Weiss and bassist Kevin McCauley, who came on board during the fall of 2010 after the departure of longtime singer/bassist Michael Amper. The band takes its name from an anonymously written Irish poem of the 18th century Cean Dubh Dilis, about a beautiful girl with black hair.
The group’s sound is openly and proudly Anglophilic, combining both elements of the blissout shoegazer scene and a slightly older vein of post-punk guitar experimentalism, making a rich combination between the two influences. Words like “atmospheric”, “ethereal” and “dreampop” are often used to describe their original guitar driven, psychedelic storm of sound that balances moody textures and shimmering melodies.
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Brooklyn-based Elika is comprised of multimedia artists Evagelia Maravelias and Brian Wenckebach. The duo formed in 2005 and since that time, have recorded and released a slew of adventurous music, toured internationally, earned critical acclaim, and supported live acts such as Asobi Seksu and Ulrich Schnauss. In fact, the electrogazer Schnauss, both a respected musician and producer, particularly champions Elika’s music, dubbing them “an incredibly exciting, radical fusion of shoegaze and electronica elements.”
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Astrobrite is the Chicago-based shoegaze noise-pop project from the musician Scott Cortez (of STAR and lovesliescrushing). For regular Strangeways Shoegaze Spotlight readers, this should sound somewhat familiar – last week in the Spotlight, Cortez’s project lovesliescrushing was covered. Cortez’s influence on the evolution of shoegaze, drone and dream pop is often criminally overlooked; both lovesliescrushing and Astrobrite deserve closer examination by any fans of these genres.
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In 1991, when lovesliescrushing was born, it’s safe to say that no one out there was doing anything quite comparable to the soundscapes they were creating. The band’s sound doesn’t adhere to traditional song structures or traditional vocal delivery; the emphasis has always been on texture, layering of effects, guitar tonality, and experimentation with unorthodox noise makers, i.e. vibrators, nails, screw drivers, metal – whatever could produce a new tone or sound to add to their otherworldly sound. The lovesliescrushing sound has also always been typified by loops, lack of drums, and Scott Cortez’ particular skill at ‘wreaking all manner of beautiful sonic mayhem from his guitar.’
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