-=- SHGZ -=-
* Shoegaze * Indie * Post-rock * Grunge * Dream Pop * Ambient * Ethereal *
Artist..: Swallow
Album...: Blow
GENRE....: Indie
STYLE....: Showgaze
LABEL....: Rough Trade SCENE.....: 2015-12-12
BITRATE..: 800 kbps avg STORE.....: 1992-00-00
ENCODER..: FLAC 1.2.1 -8 -V TRACKS....: 11
SIZE.....: 272.2MB SOURCE....: CD
URL..: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swallow_(British_band)
- TRACKLIST
1 Lovesleep 4:57
2 Tastes Like Honey 4:39
3 Sugar Your Mind 4:02
4 Mensurral 4:04
5 Peekaboo 5:12
6 Lacuna 2:21
7 Oceans And Blue Skies 3:36
8 Follow Me Down 4:49
9 Halo 2:55
10 Cherry Stars Collide 3:46
11 Head In A Cave 6:37
Total Playtime: 46:58
For some reason, this band gets pegged as a lightweight version of the
Cocteau Twins. After hundreds of listens the only firm points for comparison
that could be made -at a stretch- are that both groups are (or were) signed
to 4AD, both featured a guitar-driven sound anchored in textural and
atmospheric exploration, and both contained female vocalists who were
comfortable at the higher end of the register. All of this is a bit like
saying humans and chimpanzees are just alike because we share 99% of the same
DNA.
There are obvious qualitative differences here. Robin Guthrie's such
heavily-processed guitar effects lent an extremely distinctive sound to the
musical palette of the Cocteau Twins; and coupled with the seven-octave range
and penchant for glossolalic lyrics possessed by Liz Frazer put an instantly
recognizable stamp on their material. Mike Mason and Louise Trehy approach
the creation of their own ethereal soundscapes from a different direction.
Mason's guitar work, while employing its own set of effects, remains more
organic. Sure, there's some reverb, but it's never taken to such extensive
lengths that it's merely mimicking Guthrie's trademark sound. The tones
emeriging from Mason's guitar, while never power chords, are much heavier and
have real depth and expansive quality; and while atmospheric they don't sound
as if they were processed through every effects pedal he owned (and this is
not meant to be a slur against Guthrie.
*
Swallow, the partnership of guitarist Mike Mason and vocalist Louise Trehy,
released only a couple of albums in the early 1990s and is often sadly
misremembered as a Cocteau Twins knockoff. Of course, comparisons to that
famous Scottish act can be drawn, for Swallow's music is lush, hardly
intelligible vocals submerged in sweeping guitar lines and drum machines, and
even the band playfully nicknamed themselves the "Cockatoo Twins". Perhaps
the most impressive debt to the Cocteau Twins is that Trehy and Mason were
among the first to realize the subtle sexuality of Cocteau Twins' lyrics
("Pearly Dewdrop's Drops" indeed) and so on their debut BLOW Swallow gives us
eleven tracks of suggestive titles and coy vocals.
But Swallow is a fine act in their own right, and the more I've listened to
BLOW over the years, the more they stand out in the early 1990s pop scene.
Mason's guitar playing is considerable more rough-edged than most shoegazing
acts, with a few songs like "Follow Me Down" built over mechanistic lines.
Trehy's vocals are not slow and shadowy like some other 4AD acts of the time,
but playful like a kitten. The atmospheres are often luminous, though the
joyful mood of most of the album is unexpectedly confronted by the
threatening tones of "Cherry Stars Collide" and "Head in a Cave".
This is an addictive album and one well worth picking up for anyone who likes
shoegazing or dream pop, i.e. Lush, Pale Saints, Slowdive, My Bloody
Valentine and even (very early) His Name Is Alive.
-=- SHGZ -=-
P.S.
** Thanks ***
*** BCC FNT IPC SSR ***
*** For Knowing Where The Music Is At ***
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