The label is not kidding when they call themselves the Reverberation Appreciation Society. Most tracks on the album are the Nigel Tufnel amp versions of reverb (“These go to 11.”). You’d probably be hard-pressed to find a mid-sixties pop song that didn’t work with a little more echo, so the results are mostly listenable. It’s when the bands go beyond… Read more »
Kindling offer up this melodic wall of noise from their upcoming Galaxies EP on No Idea Records. It may not break any new shoegazer ground, but certainly would not suffer on a mix tape of the genre’s best. Loud guitars and driving rhythms make the ears ring while sweet pop vocals sneak through amking it at once ethereal and earthy…. Read more »
Label: self-released Released: 2008 Dead Leaf Echo offers up layers of heavy reverb, subtle, fluid rhythms and ambling, mopey vocals in the true shoegazing tradition. At times, they find interesting ways to get the vocals to work in concert with the rhythms and it’s strikingly good. They don’t get there consistently, but when they do, they really shine. The fuzzy… Read more »
Label: Birdnote Records (distributed by Morphius Records (US) / Cargo Records (Europe) Released: March 13, 2007 Thrushes claim to venerate Phil Spector and to some extent that’s clear, but their wall of sound is quite a bit different than his. While Spector focused on straightforward pop perfection, Thrushes takes an alternate route to the same destination. From the opening track… Read more »
Label: Sire Released: October 15, 1990 Ride’s Nowhere is an album you can learn a lot about from the cover. Like the wave depicted, it may seem like a small ripple, but there is an underlying force behind it that can’t be measured on the surface. This is an album of contrasts between walls of jangley guitar, droning vocals and… Read more »