Tag: My Bloody Valentine

Immortal Wound’s Sweet and Noisy Shoegaze Single “burnt out star” Exudes Feelings of Heartbreak and a Yearning for Reconciliation

Immortal Wound, photo courtesy the artists

The reverse delay noises in the opening of “burnt out star” by Immortal Wound is like the opening credits for a short film and contrasts with the song proper with its gently processed percussion and circular guitar strumming and vocals hazy in the mix. But all of this allows the song to seem much more voluminous than it is. In fact its economy of songwriting is impressive on its own at two minutes thirty-seven the song goes through a variety of moods, textures and atmospheric dynamics as the singers speak to a love that has broken but not for good and a desire for reconnection and reconciliation. With the reverse delay noises reprising at the end and the lyric “and leaves me loveless” one wonders if it’s a tiny bit of an homage to My Bloody Valentine and that band’s own disregard for conventional song structure and use of sounds in a rock context. But this song is clearly not a direct and obvious descendant of that most hallowed of shoegaze bands. The dissonance in this song paired with the melody creates a sweetness of mood that’s undeniable and imbues its yearning for romantic satisfaction with a spirit of hope. Listen to “burnt out star” on Spotify and follow Immortal Wound at the links provided. Below the links you can see the fantastical video for the song as well.

Immortal Wound on Twitter

Immortal Wound on Instagram

Immortal Wound on Bandcamp

Immortal Wound on YouTube

The First Eloi’s Shoegaze Song “Last Days of Summer” is the Sound of the Mind’s Transition From a Time of Adventures to a Season of Reflection

The First Eloi, photo courtesy the artists

The First Eloi’s single “Last Days of Summer” resonates with that feeling that many of us recognize as the long days of the late spring and summer and the hot days and warm nights transition to sunny days and cooler evenings. It’s a mood that for can trigger memories of summer vacations being over and being back in school whether elementary or secondary or university and a time of adventures and good times give way to getting into the swing of regular life and colder temperatures, a shift into introspective moods and taking stock and getting the work of life done. But for a brief time those recent memories are so vivid even if they seem to be so recently far into the past and beyond reach except as moments to warm your mind when they come back to you. The wintry guitar tones and ethereal vocals along with the more textured riff give these feelings an almost tactile quality in the song like a resurrection of what energy My Bloody Valentine tapped into and embodied when Loveless dropped in November of 1991 and seemed to infuse the season with a dense layers and dreamlike atmospheres. The First Eloi tends to wax a little more dream pop than that but “Last Days of Summer” and a good deal of the rest of the Low Glow the group released on September 13, 2023 is reminiscent of the early shoegaze classic and its true fusion of texture, tone and organic rhythms. Listen to “Last Days of Summer” on Spotify and follow The First Eloi at the links below.

The First Eloi on YouTube

The First Eloi on Bandcamp

The First Eloi on Instagram

Figure Eight Deliver an Epic Noise Pop and Shoegaze Single With the Splintery and Frayed-Edged “Altar”

Figure Eight, photo courtesy the artists

Oakland-based noise pop group Figure Eight has a number of self-recorded tapes and demos out in the world but “Altar” represents its debut releasing a “proper” recording. But in doing so the band didn’t bother with taming its sound or smoothing over what some might consider the rough edges of its songwriting and performance. Rather, the bendy, distorted guitar riffs and ghostly, winsome vocals, melodic bass lines and generally flooding bursts of dense yet ethereal sounds are preserved like you’re listening to a band that dangled a single wide spectrum mic over its practice space to capture the essence of what it would be like to be there and experience that while of sound and its beautifully and blissfully disorienting quality. Immediate comparisons must be drawn with My Bloody Valentine because of the dreamlike noisiness of the song and its disregard for conventional song structure in favor of a more organic flow. In doing so Figure Eight has crafted a song whose influences seem obvious but whose sonics invite repeated listens because it hits with an analog charm that seems like something that when you see it live would be a little different every time because the musicians are letting the wild nature of the way the electric instruments process the signal go off the rails a little bit with every performance. Listen to “Altar” on Spotify and follow Figure Eight at the links provided.

Figure Eight on TikTok

Figure Eight on Instagram

The Loud Bangs’ “Candy Sometimes Always” Transcends Pop Conventions With Its Collage of Visceral and Expansive Effervescence

The Loud Bangs, photo courtesy the artists

Linear musical structure matters less than layers of emotional coloring and tone in The Loud Bangs’ “Candy Sometimes Always.” It somehow works as a hooky pop song without conventional structure because the collage of guitar melody, distorted waves of textures, an almost sampled, musique concrète element of vocals and expressionistic percussion collude to sweep you away in a sustained effervescence that feels like a bubbly cleansing for the brain in the listening. Fans of Asobi Seksu, Blushing and the more pop end of My Bloody Valentine will appreciate what The Loud Bangs have done here and with the rest of its December 16, 2022 EP Salvation Memorial Hospital. It is music as visceral as it is dreamlike in emotional resonance. Listen to “Candy Sometimes Always” on YouTube and follow The Loud Bangs at the links below.

The Loud Bangs on Facebook

The Loud Bangs on Instagram

“Creep For Life” by The Great Dictators Mirrors the Warped Dynamic of a Dysfunctional Family and Renders it Escapable

The Great Dictators, photo courtesy the artists

“Creep For Life,” the final single from The Great Dictators’ new album One Eye Opener (released April 17, 2020 on Celebration Records) sounds like a warping collage of melodies and textures held together, oddly, by the vocals telling the story of a dysfunctional family, the deviously passive aggressive kind in which that dynamic rolls back and forth with everyone on the lookout and never really knowing where they stand with anyone. The kind of family dynamic of mutual abuse that goes unexamined and undiscussed for years because to admit to not being able to “deal” with it is to admit one’s shortcomings, leaving oneself vulnerable to becoming the family scapegoat that everyone else can pile on even when they’re fairly shitty to each other if the occasion presents itself. The song’s soundscapes is like the emotional feedback loop that one can ride out of the situation and it’s reminiscent of a more pop version of My Bloody Valentine’s “Loomer” from Loveless. Though, according to the band, the song is a bit of a tribute to the imaginative soundscapes of Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannson who passed away in 2018. The imagery that includes the line “This party is the worst party ever” is so poignant because it captures those awkward family gatherings, name the occasion, in which people seem to competitively snipe at each other. Fortunately, in being able to identify all of these shenanigans the song offers an exit which is often taking yourself out of the situation as often as possible because that kind of neuroses is only perpetuated when people participate without having any distance from that being the twisted norm and even if, when you make that move, you’re dubbed a terrible person by those choosing to be snared by that endless cycle of co-dependent abuse. Listen to “Creep For Life” on Soundcloud and connect with The Great Dictators at the links provided.

soundcloud.com/the-great-dictators
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youtube.com/user/TheGreatDictators/videos
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