GazePop15 rundown, Nov 2022
2022-11-14
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 🇸🇪 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.
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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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.
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'.
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'
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.
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.
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)
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.
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
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!
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..."
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
2. STAR - Devastator (2007)
Ultra-saturated teenage love buzz noisepop from the good people that brought you Astrobrite and Loveliescrushing
