bloweyelashwish

Album review

The amount of bands My Bloody Valentine inspired (and sometimes more than inspired) throughout the '90s is near endless, but there's no question that some took that inspiration to a better place than others. Lovesliescrushing easily took it to one of the best; with all the chaotic yet beautiful frenzy of Kevin Shields at his most creative, yet with its own mysterious, dreamy goth air, the duo created an amazing sonic bomb with Bloweyelashwish. Using only a four-track recorder, multi-instrumentalist (and Cocteau Twins-inspired art designer) Cortez whipped a frenetic, echoed, and howling mass of feedback and noise at once terrifying and terrifyingly pretty, with only the occasional fragment like "Teardrop" and "Butterfly" hinting at calmer waters. Moments like the opening stuttering chug of "Iwantyou," his voice serenely intoning the titular wish over the noise, the sprawl of "Plume," and the heartbreaking chime and surge of "Sugaredglowing" are just three of the many strong points. The female singer here is listed as Isabel rather than Melissa Arpin, but whoever is singing adds the right sort of disoriented vocal glaze in the duets familiar -- unsurprisingly -- from Shields and Bilinda Butcher. On her own, as "Moinaexquisitewallflower" and other songs show, she more than older her evocative own. Perhaps the real sign that Lovesliescrushing has something is that it's even more gone than MBV -- many songs don't even make the simplest concession to pop hooks, swathed in candy-colored noise that's not unfriendly to the ear, but not conventionally hooky at all, as "Burst" and "Crushing" clearly demonstrate. It's a marvelous testament to both performers' abilities, but especially Cortez's astounding way to make everything sound just perfectly right, that Bloweyelashwish can easily rival Loveless when it comes to thick, evocative music seemingly heard through antique glass, strange and beautiful.

© Ned Raggett /TiVo