We Are...SNØSKRED

I was sent the single 'We Are' yesterday by Norwegian band Snøskred, a quintet who all sing (and presumably all dance?) over a enviable brew of benevolent noise. The perfect permutation of dreampop and shoegaze, 'We Are' is at its best a glorious microcosm of interstellar sonics, a sinewave of sinuous sound and; at its worst, its a MBV-lite cast-off. Either way you look at it (and I'm definitely in the former camp), it's an assured track, an ecstatic preamble to what will hopefully provide a stellar debut longplayer.


You can grab 'You Are' on a 7" through Riot Factory Records.

Let's Get Shellaced

Hole E Shit. As if I WASN'T going to be excited about Shellac's first Australian appearance since 1993 - I saw these guys only hours before this blog was conceived at the My Bloody Valentine ATP! But of course they (alongside another couple of greats, Lee Ranaldo and Billy Bragg) had been garnered for this year's Melbourne Festival, so assumptions were high that the only way to catch the rambunctious trio was to wing it south. Not so, as all three acts will alight in Brisbane in late October as part of an East Coast tour (not all together, separate tours - I would pay to see Bragg and Albini in some verbal confrontation. Actually, anyone with Albini will find it hard pressed to get on top, he is one opinionated mofo). So get your tix here for Shellac's Tuesday October 23 show at The Zoo, with Pikelet in support. They are 30-odd bucks, incredibly cheap really, so expect these to fly out the door.

Averkiou Show A New Imperative - To Rock!

The first of two Gainesville, Florida releases to show off today (crazy, right?) is this EP The New Imperative by Averkiou (pronounced av er queue). It offers four tracks of warm and fuzzy guitars and vocal harmonies, like Yo La Tengo doing their best My Bloody Valentine, but with more heart. I can't believe I haven't heard of this quartet before! It makes me jump around my bedroom with giddy abandon like it's the late 90s all over again (when I used to jump around my bedroom with giddy abandon. Probably after writing bad poetry). If you could build a castle out of overdrive pedals and dig a moat with reverb, then but in that moat crystalline water from which sung the most alluring of Sirens, The New Imperative would be your blueprint. Awesome-o.


The New Imperative (look at that cat! Cats, man!) is put out through Sound Study Recordings, and can be gleaned here.

Averkiou - Fuzzy Photograph

New My Bloody Valentine!

OK, this has been out in the ether for two days now, but seeing as Sonic Masala was conceived at a My Bloody Valentine concert I better jump on the bandwagon! With all these remasterings going on (and I must admit that it's getting a little out of hand), there is some good coming from Kevin Shields' revisiting their back catalogue - such as NEW SONGS! Not new new, just unreleased, new to these ears new. This track comes from their EPs collection. What a great way to start the day!

My Bloody Valentine - Good For You (via Pitchfork)

Drowners Never Go Away

Take a moment to meet Drowner, fittingly from Space City USA - Houston, Texas. Their press ticks off influences that colour each corner of the shimmering guitar rock spectrum - Ringo Deathstarr, My Bloody Valentine, Mogwai, Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, The Cure... And whilst the shoegaze elements are inherent in their self-titled debut LP (out March 13 on Saint Marie Records, a niche label that specialises in this sound and have also added SM faves Bloody Knives to their roster), making such connections is a little too safe. Case in point is second track 'Never Go Away', at just under eight minutes a creeping track that is Siren-esque in its gossamer, eerie calls. The washes of guitar are actually delicate, meticulously balanced, even in the stronger rock numbers such as 'Point Dume' or 'Written'. After bringing Fonda's comeback to our attention last year, Crash Avenue are responsible for pushing this release, and with good reason. This reminds me of when I heard Whirr (the band formerly known as Whirl) for the first time. Seeing as their Distressor EP is one of my favourite releases of its kind in the past few years, that is saying something. Get on board.



Drowner - Never Go Away
Drowner - Point Dume

The Briefest Candles Burn Brightest

Another little known band, another great release! This time Im talking about Milwaukee band Brief Candles, whose Fractured Days LP (out on Guilt Ridden Pop) is nothing short of spectacular. Marrying the shoegaze sonics of My Bloody Valentine with the finesse and whimsy of the Swirlies with some sort of Superchunk sugar rush in there too? At first description many of you will think "So Fucking What? Every band and his two-legged companion is doing that!" Well, that isnt that true, but when done well you nod and applaud. When done really well, like what is on offer on Fractured Days, then the lathered sweat is warranted.


Its so loud and guitar driven, yet the vocals and lyrics are incredibly affecting - look no further than the brilliant tete a tete on single 'Small Streets' ("In 1983, when we first heard ‘Come On Eileen,’ / I knew that you could see and you could understand. / We knew the same small streets, the same small towns, the same small creeps, / and we knew that we would leave or die by our own hands.") Those words are closer to my teenagehood than Id like to admit.

Which is interesting, as Fractured Days is so 90s indie that it has me tearing up at how affected it all was, and how much posing goes on today. When I look at a lot of the utter pandering "look at me! Ill pretend to be disdainful but really relish any attention, positive or otherwise!" bullshit bands that get lauded over, it makes me physically ill. So thank you Brief Candles, for reminding me that whilst guys like you are still around, everything just might turn out OK...

Brief Candles - 10 Weeks
Brief Candles - Small Streets

MY BLOODY VALENTINE – LOVELESS (CREATION RECORDS)

MY BLOODY VALENTINE – LOVELESS (CREATION RECORDS)

Gut wrenching from off with Loveless My Bloody Valentine truly live up to their name immediately as the swinging stabs of motion that inhabit “Only Shallow” sound like no other beginning to an album in history. Swiftly as the vocals enter proceedings and ethereal air grabs hold of proceedings and a comforting air of grace lends a true air of class to the now dream like series of circumstances that lay ahead.

With their second studio album My Bloody Valentine genuinely manage to sound like no other music act in history. As the closing strains of “Only Shallow” disappear into the either the ensuing blast of “Loomer” serves to move the soul of the listener to places probably previously undiscovered. As the guitar sounds begin to echo whales singing you can only but wonder how this band is making and getting away with these sounds without disappearing down some blind alley.

Famously this is the album that almost bankrupted Creation and upon arrival at “To Here Knows When” the studio indulge does begin to overtake the create process and to some degree all those cheques Alan McGee wrote out do not feel worth the paper they were written. This is just the frustrating air that comes with this record, at times it is just too hypnotic and abstract and given relaxed from of mind it is possible to lose yourself in these songs when it doesn’t serve the listener very well to do so.

As the song arrives at “I Only Said” you are amazed at how Shields appears to have made a guitar sound like a clarinet as the remainder weaves in and out of the healthy part of the mind.

“Sometimes” now rains as one of the most recognizable MBV songs after its emotive usage in Lost In Translation which has since added a whole new dimension and weight to the value of the song. Some say that getting Shields to work on the soundtrack of that movie were the seeds of his return to live action.

The album closes in the most bombastic of manners with “Soon” which is probably the best known and popular piece of the My Bloody Valentine armory. Here is a song that warrants some kind of research and attempted interpretation as the messages that come from the specter are so mixed and allusive. As the drums bounce it almost sounds like a dance track as the chunkiest wall of noise gears up to bomb in the most blatant and unsubtle fashion. This is a song designed to burst ear drums and serve as the aural equivalent of a love/hate relationship and argument.

This record marks the land.

Thesaurus moment: romantic.

My Bloody Valentine

Creation Records

MY BLOODY VALENTINE – ISN’T EVERYTHING (CREATION RECORDS)

MY BLOODY VALENTINE – ISN’T EVERYTHING (CREATION RECORDS)

Opening with drums that sound like a person pounding on a door Isn’t Everything begins sounding like it is being played backwards as large movements of sound grind against a gorgeous series of declarations and suggestions with all in all gives off the impression that the band is floating. The pay off is immediate with this record.

It is often forgotten just how delicate and subtle My Bloody Valentine were able to be but sonically and spoken. The dream like qualities that emit from the sound of this record feel unique and plausible containing an originality and generous genuity seldom found in other bands of the noise or even post-rock ilk. There was a wait/weight but you can’t help but concede it was worth it.

The sheer name of the album suggests some kind of resented resignation, suggesting boredom and some kind of conclusion that everything is the same, everything has been done. Likewise coupled with the band’s name and identity it serves to take some heat off the expectations of the band themselves as a potentially defacing and self depreciating safety/security defence measure.

The hinted/suggested vulnerable continues as a theme with the lovelorn “Cupid Comes” which delivers the first real human, non ugly moment of the record. Three songs in here comes the first hook of the day as on a rare occasion the lyric content of the songwriting process takes precedent over the sonic exploration (racket).

Following closely behind comes “(When You Wake) You’re Still In A Dream” which is as fast paced as a My Bloody Valentine song gets, again serving/dishing out clear vocals and clear intentions, benefiting from strangely huge riffs and hooks. As the versus leaving the song hanging in the air there is a youthful optimism attached to proceedings with invariably falls apart along with the song towards the climax.

“No More Sorry” and “All I Need” then display the suffocating sonically driven side of the band’s act and does not necessarily serve them or this record well.

It is surprising to note just how “indie” the band sounds on this record when they are at their most coherent, something that would most definitely be missing by the time they came to producing/releasing Loveless. In many ways these are the songs that make Isn’t Everything the exciting proposition that it is and is able to steer the listener away from Loveless and back to this album.

Of all the songs on display it is “Nothing Much To Lose” that feels as if it has most to offer these days working as something of a happy compromise and managing most successfully on this record to blend the poppier moments with the more jagged daggers of noise workouts.

This is a record I could foist upon/onto anybody.

Thesaurus moment: composite.

My Bloody Valentine

Creation Records