i hate the sound of guitars » shoegaze

quick take : Asboi Seksu : Fluorescence

guitarlover — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 10:22:52 +0000

On my first time through this seemed to have less distorted guitar/shoegaze goodness than prior efforts, and Yuki Chikudate’s vocals struck me as a bit more thin and chirpy than I recalled. On second listen, with the volume up a little more, I don’t hear what bugged me at all. My favorite track is “Trance Out”, the shortest and maybe the most overtly Citrus-y song, but my second favorite is the longest, the nearly-7-minute, tripartite “Leave the Drummer Out There,” the middle section of which is quite slow — and more than a little reminiscent of “All of Me.”

quick take : Stripmall Architecture : Albino Peacock (EP)

guitarlover — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 10:23:06 +0000

Four more thoughtful, intricately assembled songs from this outfit that doesn’t quite fit in any of the genres you might try to box it in: not precisely shoegaze, trip-hop, nor electropop. Some melodic elements and arrangement details here and there impart a hint of Eastern flavor and lead track “Lemoncholic” is maybe one of their most straightforwardly catchy moments to date. I’m a little more aware than previously of Rebecca Coseboom’s timbral similarity to Cocteau Twin’s Elizabeth Fraser on a couple of these tunes, but it’s a reference point of limited usefulness; there’s nothing particularly gauzy about Stripmall Architecture.

quick take : The Joy Formidable : The Big Roar

guitarlover — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 12:18:25 +0000

I’m sort of preparing myself for a hipster backlash against former blog darlings The Joy Formidable, on account of their major label debut, The Big Roar, including 4 tracks that originally appeared on their EP A Balloon Called Moaning.* I’ll admit I was initially a bit disappointed when I saw this, but after listening through the album a few times, I don’t care. The Big Roar is sequenced really well. If you enjoy densely textured, guitar-based indie rock that’s too propulsive to be quintessentially shoegaze but is nonetheless pretty pedal-happy, this is a satisfying end-to-end listen. It’s early days yet, but it may be one of the best such things you hear this year. I think that’s what matters most.

I also know the requisite hipster pose is to decry any re-recording as vastly inferior to the original version, but in this case it’s simply not true. “Whirring” has been completely reworked and now represents the song as the band has been performing it, with the extended instrumental break that showcases their increasing grasp of texture and dynamics. (Aside: nyctaper has live sets available to download; it’s a little hard to believe a 3-piece can make such an enveloping racket.) A couple of the others have been remixed to sound a little sharper and less murky; I don’t think “Cradle” was messed with at all. And these choices all serve the album well.

* It’s not that the band is starved for material; they’ve released a trio of singles in between, and their lives sets have featured as-yet unrecorded songs.

Manhattan Love Suicides – Burnt Out Landscapes

guitarlover — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 14:27:14 +0000

Breaking all kindsa rules: I haven’t even listened to this record all the way through once, and it’s already one of my favorites of the year. It’s got me bouncing around in my seat so much, I just have to tell someone about it right now!!! Manhattan Love Suicides (from Leeds; the name is a reference to a 1985 Richard Kern film) have only been around since 2006, and released only one LP, so this generous assemblage of singles, radio sessions, and compilation tracks (including this year’s EPs “Kick it Back” and “Clusterfuck”) is a bit of a surprise. It’s also a revelation — a huge step forward from the swell but not amazing debut record. It’s easy to to play the sounds-like game: Jesus & Mary Chain + Lush + The Primitives, with a dash of My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth. The facile triangulation of obvious influences doesn’t capture how good Manhattan Love Suicides have suddenly become at assembling bubblegum pop kernels in squeally, hissy, barbed wire coating. Shoegaze seems to be in the middle of a renaissance right now, and with this release Manhattan Love Suicides joins Asobi Seksu and A Place to Bury Strangers at the forefront of the sound.