Head down, eyes locked on an effect pedal. The mind meanders through a thin atmosphere, rendered heedless and giddy, while the hands conjure up thick and agitated electric riffs. A seagull gliding untouched over a stroppy ocean. The petulant duality of its sound is owed to deeper currents than those we just hear coming out of the amplifiers. It’s the whirlpool where the brashness and the timidity that serve as refuges from adolescent insecurity meet. Shoegaze; it’s the musical genre that exploded onto the UK scene in the early 1990s. A beautiful fusion of impressive and imposing walls of sound powered by poppy electric guitars, coated with a densely impressionistic layer of reverb, lifted by ethereal vocals. Fuzzy, ineffable, sweeping… all the ineffectual violence of a dream. My Bloody Valentine must be credited as the pioneers of the movement, but Slowdive, Ride, Swervedriver, Lush, the Pale Saints and a few others have made many contributions just as significant. The movement was rapidly praised by the British press – led by NME and Melody Maker – and it has left a profound mark which is still felt, with bands such as DIIV, Wild Nothing and A Place To Bury Strangers surfing its electric tsunami to this day…
Even if all the actors, past and present, of the shoegaze scene have been largely inspired by The Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth, Hüsker Dü, The Cure, Galaxie 500, Siouxsie And The Banshees and Dinosaur Jr., there are two bands that have had more impact than any, who have catered a glass, a bottle, maybe even a barrel or two of their heady influence: the Cocteau Twins and The Jesus & Mary Chain. Both were masters in that delicate science of marrying harsh and soft, or of finding their inherent sameness… the two sides of the teenage soul. In the vastness of 1980s new wave, between behemoths such as The Cure and U2, the Cocteau Twins were in a class of their own, garnering more and more of a cult following after each passing year. From 1979 to 1997, Robin Guthrie was its mastermind, using his talents to frame Liz Fraser’s angelic voice (his sweetheart at the time). He’d orchestrate guitars fanning warm updrafts to buoy her wings in the air, where she’d serenade red clouds in her own completely invented language. They became the flagship band for the label 4AD, and the Scottish ambassador of a new kind of dream pop that was often copied but never matched. Their totally encompassing electric sound influenced countless bands after them, and not just within the confines of shoegaze. The couple eventually broke up, romantically and professionally, and Guthrie, living in France, started releasing stunning solo instrumental albums on a regular basis.
Create a free account to keep reading
