-=- SHGZ -=-
* Shoegaze * Indie * Post-Rock * Grunge * Dream Pop * Psych-Rock * Ethereal *
ARTIST..: Pale Saints
ALBUM...: In Ribbons 30th Anniversary Re:Masters
GENRE...: Indie
STYLE...: Indie Rock, Shoegaze
YEAR....: 2023
LABEL...: 4AD
COUNTRY.: United Kingdom
PLACE...: Leeds, West Yorkshire
FORMED..: 1987
ENDED...: 1996
ENCODER.: LAME 3.100 -V0
BITRATE.: 265 kbps avg
QUALITY.: 44.1kHz / Joint Stereo
SOURCE..: CD
TRACKS..: 24
SIZE....: 183.34 MB
URL..: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Ribbons
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Saints
- TRACKLIST
Disc 1
------
In Ribbons 30th Anniversary Re:Masters
1 Throwing Back The Apple 4:09
2 Ordeal 3:58
3 Thread Of Light 4:05
4 Shell 4:53
5 There Is No Day 0:39
6 Hunted 7:43
7 Hair Shoes 5:48
8 Babymaker 3:25
9 Liquid 2:43
10 Neverending Night 4:45
11 Featherframe 4:38
12 A Thousand Stars Burst Open 4:39
Disc 2
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Unreleased Sessions 1991-1992
1 Babymaker (LP Demo) 3:03
2 Kinky Love (LP Demo) 4:07
3 Hair Shoes LP (Demo) 4:45
4 Shell (LP Demo) 4:22
5 Hunted (LP Demo) 4:48
6 Featherframe (LP Demo) 3:40
7 Blue Flower (LP Demo) 4:34
8 Throwing Back The Apple (LP Demo) 2:42
9 Ordeal (LP Demo) 2:41
10 Untitled Instrumental (LP Demo) 2:54
11 A Thousand Stars Burst Open 3:20
(Tintwistle Band Version)
12 A Revelation 3:45
(Tintwistle Band Version)
Total Playtime: 96:06
CD1 Tracks 1-12 are from the original 1992 album remastered.
CD2 Tracks 11 & 12 are from the bonus limited 7" that was included with "In Ribbons" UK 1992.
*
Pale Saints announce an expanded reissue of their 1992 album In Ribbons,
featuring previously unreleased demos and two reworks by The Tintwistle Band.
Missing its original release date last year due to Covid delays and
production plant woes, the record, which Pitchfork named one of The Best
Shoegaze Albums of All Time, is finally getting the 30th Anniversary
celebration it deserves with a special double LP / CD release.
The first disc features the UK version of the album with the second featuring
a bonus disc of never before heard demos that include their first attempt at
Slapp Happy's 'Blue Flower' and Ian Masters' rare 4 track recording of their
beloved Nancy Sinatra cover 'Kinky Love,'. Additionally, the bonus disc
features two brass band versions by The Tintwistle Band (previously only
heard on a limited, bonus 7" with the initial UK LP pressing).
*
The 1990 debut album from Pale Saints, The Comforts of Madness, is an
outstanding record that owed as much to post-punk and L.A.'s Paisley
Underground scene than it did to shoegaze. The Sunday Times called it "an
unintended indie manifesto: music that is at once wayward and concise,
dissonant and beautiful." Shortly after its release and in need of a second
live guitarist, Lush founding member Meriel Barham joined the Leeds trio of
Ian Masters, Graeme Naysmith and Chris Cooper, bringing a new dynamic to the
band. Having previously worked well with producer Hugh Jones (Echo & The
Bunnyman, Modern English, The Sound), he did a brilliant job recording their
second album, In Ribbons (1992), despite some studio tensions. Brooklyn Vegan
said in a recent celebration of the album that it was the "push and pull
between Masters' outsider tendencies and (the rest's) commercial interests
that makes In Ribbons so good. If some of the wild, ragged edges of Comforts
of Madness have been smoothed off, the album makes up for it with scope and
beauty. And there's still no shortage of weird." Missing its original release
date last year due to Covid delays and a production plant in meltdown, In
Ribbons is finally getting the 30th Anniversary celebration it deserves with
a special double LP / CD release - the first disc be- ing the UK version of
the album, the second a bonus disc of never before heard demos (including
their first attempt at Slapp Happy's 'Blue Flower' and Ian's 4 track
recording of 'Kinky Love') and two brass band versions by The Tintwistle
Band. Coming in a beautiful gatefold sleeve, the limited double LP edition is
being pressed on unpigmented vinyl by The Vinyl Factory in West London. A
single disc, black vinyl version is also being released.
*
For its first two decades, 4AD was one of the most unique, distinctive UK
indie record labels. There was an enigmatic aura around it, thanks in part to
founder Ivo Watts Russell who signed a lot of great gothy artists, and who
presented an instantly recognizable faτade via the gorgeous artwork done by
in-house designer Vaughan Oliver and his 23 Envelope / v23 team. The 4AD
roster during its '80s/90s heyday was actually pretty varied, from punk to
synthpop to ornate folk, and included Cocteau Twins, The Birthday Party,
Bauhaus, The Wolfgang Press, Modern English, Throwing Muses, Dead Can Dance,
Lush, Ultra Vivid Scene, Throwing Muses, Clan of Xymox, Colourbox, and Ivo's
own much-loved project with producer John Fryer, This Mortal Coil, to name a
few. It all fit under Ivo's singular vision.
But the ultimate 4AD act, or at least the one that seems to pull from all
corners of Ivo's taste, were Leeds band Pale Saints. Led by bassist and
singer Ian Masters, Pale Saints were capable of the ethereal beauty of
Cocteau Twins, the roar of Pixies, and the off-kilter quirk of Throwing
Muses. Masters brought spine-tingling melodies, sung in an eerie fey
falsetto, and fluid, driving basslines; Graeme Naysmith was one of the most
original guitarists of the era; and drummer Chris Cooper brought both power
and subtlety behind the kit. The band were lumped into the shoegaze scene -
they toured with Lush and Ride in the US - but they were closer in spirit to
early '80s post-punk groups like The Sound and Echo and The Bunnymen. Pale
Saints also had a real love for L.A.'s Paisley Underground scene,
particularly Opal whose song "Fell from the Sun" they covered on their
fantastic debut album, The Comforts of Madness, which was 4AD's first album
of the 1990s.
By halfway through 1990, with their debut out, Pale Saints began to feel
limited by their trio lineup and recruited Meriel Barham on guitar and
vocals. Meriel was a founding member of Lush who had left before their first
EP. She joined just in time for 1990's Half-Life EP but really made her
presence felt on 1991's Flesh Balloon EP that featured the gorgeous, dramatic
"Hunted" and an especially dreamy cover of Nancy Sinatra's "Kinky Love" that
featured Barham on lead vocals and netted the band a minor UK hit.
For their second album, Pale Saints stayed with Flesh Balloon producer Hugh
Jones who had worked with Modern English, The Sound, and the Bunnymen, and
whose atmospheric style was a good match for the band's sound. Jones was also
a calming presence, smoothing out tensions between Masters - whose taste
leaned more to the esoteric - and the rest of the band who enjoyed working on
the somewhat more mainstream side of indie and were interested in, you know,
selling some records.
That push and pull between Masters' outsider tendencies and Naysmith, Cooper
and Barham's commercial interests is what makes In Ribbons so good. If some
of the wild, ragged edges of Comforts of Madness have been smoothed off, the
album makes up for it with scope and beauty. And there's still no shortage of weird.
The album, which was released on March 23, 1992, opens brilliantly with
"Throwing Back the Apple," a track that immediately knocks you over with a
tsunami of furiously strummed guitars and pounding drums before letting the
tide recede to reveal shimmering guitars, heavenly Masters/Barham harmonies,
and some ragged soloing by Naysmith that Frank Black and Joey Santiago might envy.
Pale Saints' command of dynamics - their ability to build up layers of sound,
knock them down, and put them together again in a slightly different and
satisfying fashion - is all over In Ribbons. That's best exemplified by
"Hunted," reused from the Flesh Balloon EP, that showcases every member of
the band's strengths. There's high drama woven into the song's ebb-and-flow
structure with Cooper's nuanced, rat-a-tat drumming, the textured guitarwork
of Naysmith and Barham, and Masters' melodic basslines and haunting vocals.
With moments of elegance and paint-peeling noise, "Hunted" rivals "Sight of
You" as Pale Saints' best song.
Not quite scaling those heights but coming very close are "Ordeal," the
soaring "Babymaker" (re-recorded from Half-Life) and "Thousand Stars Burst
Open" which closes the album with a little Roback worship. In Ribbons also
features a number of surreal mood pieces, including the cello-laden "Shell,"
the tense, unsettling "Hair Shoes," and "Neverending Night" which is as
pretty as its title.
Barham sings lead on three tracks, two of which - "Thread of Light" and
"Featherframe" - are terrific and bring a new but complimentary sound to Pale
Saints. "Thread of Light" does sound a lot like Barnham's old band but brings
a level of refinement and dexterity that Lush rarely achieved. Also, no knock
against Lush's Miki Berenyi or Emma Anderson, but Barham was the better
singer, too.
The best song to feature Barham, though, is one that that wasn't on the
original UK edition of In Ribbons but was wisely pulled up from the Throwing
Back the Apple EP and onto the North American release of the album. It's a
cover of Slapp Happy's 1972 song "Blue Flower," which Roback's post Opal
band, Mazzy Star, had covered on their 1989 debut album, She Hangs Brightly.
Where Mazzy Star's version had smoky late night cool, Pale Saints brought a
crystalline beauty, both with the delicately arpeggiated guitars and Barham's
clear voice. But when she sings "But I'm no fool, I know you're cool / I
never really wanted your heart," the feedback swells and the band
majestically hammer it out on two chords that could hypnotically go on
forever. There is probably no changing the minds of Mazzy Star fans, but this
is the best "Blue Flower."
Unfortunately, the rift within Pale Saints grew after the release of In
Ribbons. Masters didn't really like to tour and a US label-mandated tour of
the States with Ride, who had released their second album Going Blank Again
just a few weeks before In Ribbons, proved to be the straw that broke the
camel's back. Masters quit in 1993 and formed Spoonfed Hybrid and then ESP
Summer with His Name is Alive's Warren Defever, two projects that allowed him
to spiral into his own navel. Pale Saints, meanwhile, carried on without him,
recruiting Heart Throbs' Colleen Brown on bass and making one more record -
1994's Slow Buildings - which was fine but lacked that creative spark and the
great songs of the first two albums.
In 2020, Beggars Arkive gave The Comforts of Madness a 30th anniversary
reissue. In Ribbons, which has been out of print in physical formats since
its initial release, deserves the same treatment.
-=- SHGZ -=-
-=-=-==-=-=-
Shoegaze
is a genre of alternative rock that
originated in the late 80s. The genre is very
difficult to define, and it is even more difficult to evaluate music
within it. Generally, the genre is characterized by its
shimmering vocals, reverberating guitars, and
textural distortion that create
a tranquil, opaque
feeling.
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