Dream Pop and Shoegaze

[DAVIE]

TSUNAMI


Shoegaze and Dream Pop are my favourite genres!

Cocteau Twins, Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine, Kitchens Of Distinction, Dreamscape, Isobella....the list goes on for ages!

 

[Librarian On Fire]

I've been paying attention to the band A Place to Bury Strangers for about five years now. They're pretty good, except they brickwall their sound into sheer white noise

there's this other current band called Ringo Deathstarr that are pretty rad. They sound like all your favourite shoegaze bands in one, especially MBV and the Jesus & Mary Chain. Worth checking out if you have the intuition

I've only just discovered A Place To Bury Strangers. They remind me of the New Zealand band Bailter Space. I like 'strangers for that sheer wall of noise at times infused with some intelligence. At times though they can be uncomfortable to listen to. For dream pop, I'd add the Field Mice. The indie indie New Order. Also the Heart Throbs were labelled with the tag dream pop when they were around. A band sadly missed.

 

[Oh my god. it's Robby!]

took the tip and listened to some A Place To Bury Strangers
not bad
mainly though, it put me in a mood to listen to some Crystal Castles

 

[DAVIE]

I've only just discovered A Place To Bury Strangers. They remind me of the New Zealand band Bailter Space. I like 'strangers for that sheer wall of noise at times infused with some intelligence. At times though they can be uncomfortable to listen to. For dream pop, I'd add the Field Mice. The indie indie New Order. Also the Heart Throbs were labelled with the tag dream pop when they were around. A band sadly missed.

Yes Field Mice are good! Please give Tsunami a listen!

 

[Worm]

took the tip and listened to some "A Place To Bury Strangers"
not bad
mainly though, it put me in a mood to listen to some Crystal Castles"

Have you heard "Plague", Robby? Excellent stuff. CC is scheduled for a new album later in the year.

 

[Oh my god. it's Robby!]

Have you heard "Plague", Robby? Excellent stuff. CC is scheduled for a new album later in the year.

yes, I really like it

 

[Thesmithsmorrissey]

are any of you familiar with the group "A.R. Kane"?

They were two guys back in the mid-to-late 80's who were regarded as "the black Jesus and Mary Chain". Their first two albums ("69" and "i") pretty much set the blueprint for the dream pop and shoegaze movement that followed several years later

They were also two of the five guys behind that 4AD supergroup that wrote "Pump Up The Volume", but don't let that deter you from what they sounded like on their own records. Well worth checking out for anyone who likes shoegaze and dream pop

 

[Thesmithsmorrissey]

TSUNAMI

Had a listen. Didn't do much for me. Sounded kind of generic, tbh

but their first two albums are highly regarded according to their entries at Allmusic.com, so I'll probably check them out.

 

[123xyz]

Just got hold of the first Ride album , "Nowhere" . Not bad at all and improving with each listen.

I'm beginning to wonder if My Bloody Valentine was as good an introduction , years ago , to shoegaze as it was meant to be ... ?

 

[Worm]

are any of you familiar with the group "A.R. Kane"?

They were two guys back in the mid-to-late 80's who were regarded as "the black Jesus and Mary Chain". Their first two albums ("69" and "i") pretty much set the blueprint for the dream pop and shoegaze movement that followed several years later

They were also two of the five guys behind that 4AD supergroup that wrote "Pump Up The Volume", but don't let that deter you from what they sounded like on their own records. Well worth checking out for anyone who likes shoegaze and dream pop

Also excellent. "i" is brilliant.

 

[Worm]

Just got hold of the first Ride album , "Nowhere" . Not bad at all and improving with each listen.

I'm beginning to wonder if My Bloody Valentine was as good an introduction , years ago , to shoegaze as it was meant to be ... ?

"Going Blank Again" is even better, although, as I said above, by then they were already exiting the generic constraints of shoegaze. (Do not bother with their third LP.)

 

[123xyz]

"Going Blank Again" is even better, although, as I said above, by then they were already exiting the generic constraints of shoegaze. (Do not bother with their third LP.)

Why ? What happened with the third album ?


Oh , like the avatar change by the way ( I think I already mentioned somewhere I found the previous one "vaguely unnerving" )...

 

[Thesmithsmorrissey]

"Going Blank Again" is even better, although, as I said above, by then they were already exiting the generic constraints of shoegaze. (Do not bother with their third LP.)

Which one was their third album? Tarantula or Carnival of Light? Pretty sure it was the latter. Both were wretched, so I guess it makes no difference

and how dare you classify shoegaze as generic! It was groundbreaking, what those bands in that genre were doing

 

[Thesmithsmorrissey]

I'm beginning to wonder if My Bloody Valentine was as good an introduction , years ago , to shoegaze as it was meant to be ... ?

With "Loveless" being both the holy bible of shoegaze and also one of the greatest albums ever, I'd say it was the only logical introduction :/

 

[Worm]

Why ? What happened with the third album?

Beg your pardon. As Thesmithsmorrissey mentioned, they released a third and a fourth album-- both are rubbish. What happened? They just got lost in a half-assed detour through weakened strains of psychedelia and prog rock. They always had a strong pop element to their sound, even in the early, shoegaze, fuzzy-mix EPs, learned how to get a distinct sound on "Nowhere", and brought it all together beautifully on "Going Blank Again". After that they lost the plot, partly because of personnel issues I've never really understood. Great band in their prime, though. I highly recommend the early EPs ("Ride" and "Play"), the "Today Forever" EP (essentially side C of "Nowhere"), and "Going Blank Again" (plus the single for "Twisterella", which has a few stellar B-sides).

Oh , like the avatar change by the way ( I think I already mentioned somewhere I found the previous one "vaguely unnerving" )...

Well, "Game of Thrones" is on hiatus, so...

 

[Worm]

Which one was their third album? Tarantula or Carnival of Light? Pretty sure it was the latter. Both were wretched, so I guess it makes no difference

Yes, and oh yes.

and how dare you classify shoegaze as generic! It was groundbreaking, what those bands in that genre were doing

Heh, no, that's not what I meant. Shoegaze in its broadest sense is an outstanding subgenre. I just meant that Ride were sliding over into areas outside of the typical shoegaze sound. You know, gazing upward and all that.

 

[Thesmithsmorrissey]

I was only kidding. Shoegaze is an acquired taste so I don't ever really try to defend it in arguments

but I am definitely going to get re-acquainted with Going Blank Again now that you've reminded me what a fantastic album it is.

 

[fatboz]

i do really really love Lush. too bad the drummer killed himself and miki went into seclusion. I also saw MBV a couple years ago and they actually handed out earplugs at the door. At the end of the show, i lost my hearing for about 2 hours

 

[Thesmithsmorrissey]

I also saw MBV a couple years ago and they actually handed out earplugs at the door. At the end of the show, i lost my hearing for about 2 hours

Lush were great. Listened to Spooky earlier. So good

I saw MBV in '09 in NYC. They handed out the foamies there, too. It certainly helped but it still felt like an armageddon was trying to come through the walls after me. But I'm not complaining because they put on one hell of a show

 

[Qvist]

There's lots and lots of music in the Slowdive/Cocteau Twins vein being made today. Beach House for instance are rather obviously influenced by that. And Grouper, whom you'll probably like. There's been more passing through my playlists over the past year, but the names elude me.

To me the whole Slowdive thing and its derivatives tends to get a bit samey, but I really loved the Pale Saints. And MBV, of course. Don't really see what Lush is doing in there though, to me they are a very different cup of tea (though by no means a bad one).