GazePop15 rundown, Nov 2022

2022-11-14

jamc honeys dead album cover

1. Jesus and Mary Chain - Tumbledown

Where 'Teenage Lust' felt like they were trying too hard to Americanize their sound, this deep cut did it right, matching the sweetness of their melodies with grungy production featuring a sample from EINSTURZENDE NEUBATEN's 'Tanz Debil'


15. The Radio Dept - Closing Scene (2008)

A mesmerizing B-side from the πŸ‡ΈπŸ‡ͺ dreampoppers, and a fitting choice to close out this 15-day challenge. They'd end their live sets with this song, their instruments still feeding back into the PA as they left the stage.

radio dept album cover

14. Sunday Reeds - Drowning in History (2009)

Repping Australia's meagre contributions where I can. "Drowning in Amplifier Hiss" would be a better title, but SR did have a knack for cheap, fizzy noisepop unencumbered by things like "originality" or "a mixing board".

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radio dept album cover

13. Starflyer 59 - She's the Queen EP (1994)

While rarely spoken of these days, SF59 carved out their own little niche of US Christian shoegaze in the '90s alongside Morella's Forest and The Violet Burning. RIYL fuzzed out grunge-gaze like Hum.

radio dept album cover

12. Spacemen 3 - Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To (1994)

Including this odds-and-sods compilation for no other reason than the fantastic name. And maybe the sludgy, Velvets-on-mushrooms drone of 'Losing Touch with My Mind'.

sp3 album cover

11. Drop Nineteens - Delaware

A sonically schizophrenic debut that bore little resemblance to their Slowdive-infatuated demo tapes, but nonetheless contained some prime shoegaze cuts, most surprising of which was a cover of Madonna's 'Angel'

drop nineteen album cover

10. Black Tambourine - Complete Recordings

Team @SlumberlandRecs delivers again. Label head Mike Schulman's vacuum-cleaner guitars ringing out over Pam Berry's bummed-out '60s girl group vocals makes for an LP that invites repeat listening.

black tambourine album cover

9. Death in Vegas - Girls

Featured on the Lost In Translation OST, this fits in seamlessly among the Kevin Shields solo tracks, MBV and JAMC songs to build the film's atmosphere of luminous neon melancholy.

lost-in-translation album cover

8. Flying Saucer Attack - Rural Psychedelia (1993)

Glam rock guitars have never sounded more monstrous than on this cover of the Suede single "The Drowners" (reviewed in Glider #2 - MBV Special Issue)

fsa album cover

7. The Depreciation Guild - In Her Gentle Jaws (2007)

A rare mashup of kaleidoscopic dreampop and chiptune bleeps and bloops. They would release only 2 albums, after which frontman Kurt Feldman joined @thepainsofbeing on drums.

depreciationguild-2007 album cover

6. Hartfield - It Could Happen To You? (2003)

Little known Japanese record with a Hygge-esque coziness you'd otherwise associate with twee pop. They never released anything else sadly. Mixed by the legendary @wavertone

hartfield-truecolor.jpg album cover

5. Static Daydream - S/T (2015)

Another indie act in thrall to Creation Records-era noisepop . Check out how they adapted the riff from House of Love's 'Shine On' on the opening single!

staticdaydream album cover

4. The Heart Throbs - Cleopatra Grip (1990)

In '04 I was checking out a shoegaze station on the Live365 when I first heard this. Nearly 20 years on, the chorus is just as spot on as ever: "We're so tired // So tired of everything..."

cleopatra grip album cover

3. History of Apple Pie - S/T (2013)

Noisy power pop had a brief revival in the 2010s with bands like Yuck, Crocodiles and Dum Dum Girls. THAP were a small London band that sadly got lost in the shuffle. RIYL Velocity Girl, Swirlies

STAR - Devastator (2007)

2. STAR - Devastator (2007)

Ultra-saturated teenage love buzz noisepop from the good people that brought you Astrobrite and Loveliescrushing

STAR - Devastator (2007)

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