Back in August last year Irelands Virgins burst into our consciousness with their epic debut single ‘Vows’. It was an instant hit with me, the perfect blend of dreamy rock and head on gaze. The band’s formed around main man Michael Smyth with David Sloan on guitar, James Foy on drums and Brendy McCann of Hand Models on bass. Since the release of ‘Vows’ the band have touring all over Ireland spreading the word.
Now they’re back with their new single ‘Signalling’. I asked Smyth how he would describe this release?
“The track is a mix of long ambient reverbs, fuzzy riffs that wouldn’t be out of place on any 90’s Sub Pop record and a haunting ethereal vocal that cries of an unsatiated wanton desire.”
I couldn’t wait to dive in. The track comes in slow and steady with atmospheric vocals and guitar. It soon explodes over the speakers really grabbing your attention. The songwriting is on point here. The vocal melody is never compromised only augmented and lifted by the killer riffs. There’s a glorious section of glide guitar about half way in that I look forward to each time I play the song. If, like me, you like your gaze to have structure, hooks and a great chorus then this track is for you. ‘Signalling’ is the perfect successor to ‘Vows’ and is going to win this band a legion of new fans. Check out the video for the single below.
There’s even more great news as the band have announced they’re releasing both these tracks as part of their upcoming Transmit A Little Heaven EP via Blowtorch Records. It’ll be released on October 14th and you can pre-order it now over on the Virgins Bandcamp page. It’s going to be available on a very limited pink vinyl release as well so don’t sleep on this one.
If you were tuned into my DKFM Shoegaze Radio show this week you would’ve heard a first play of the third single from Dublin based gazers Floorshow. I have been a massive fan of this band since they reached out to me back in April with their first tracks ‘Walls’ and my favourite, ‘Come Home’.
Floorshow are Jessi Howell (vocals), Sean Day (guitar), Andrew Kelly (bass) and Sean McGinley (drums). I asked the band how they would describe their sound.
We draw musical inspiration from artists such as My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Drop Nineteens and American Shoegazers Ringo Deathstarr, as well as any new artists that we are currently listening to. Floorshow aim to pay homage to seminal artists of the shoegaze, dreampop and noise rock genres, while also adding and elaborating as best we can to create something new.
‘How Long’ is the sound of the band venturing into harsher more noisy territory, a sound they pull off with consummate ease. The track opens with Day’s harsh metallic guitar tones contrasting with Howells angelic tones. One thing that really jumped at me about this track is how in sync the bass and drums are. Oh, and the drums are massive sounding. Like Bonham loud! Kelly’s bass leaping around like in a fever dream in the closing section is a genius touch to close out the track.
I’m absolutely besotted with this band’s sound and I’m cannot wait until they get around to recording their debut album! Rest assured I’ll be here with a track-by-track breakdown when that happens. Until then, get on over to Bandcamp and check out ‘How Long’ now!
1995 was quite a year in music. Oasis were building their ‘Wonderwall’, the Manic’s Richey Edwards went missing, The Beatles returned with ‘Free As A Bird, The Smashing Pumpkins released their sprawling masterpiece Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and a band from my home town released their debut album on the same label as The Stone Roses.
Whiteout had been a fixture on the Greenock music scene for years prior to this. Featuring a number of different line ups over the years they finally settled on Andrew Caldwell (Jones) on vocals, Eric Lindsay on guitar, Paul Carroll on bass and Stuart Smith on drums. This period of the band produced five amazing singles and, of course, their debut album, Bite It.
If you were around at the time your first introduction to the band may have been on Channel 4’s late night music and mayhem show, The Word. The band turned in a statement of intent performance of lead single ‘No Time’. This was down to all the hard work put in playing live up and down the country honing their skills ready for the spotlight. Including a co-headlining tour with a certain up and coming five-piece from Manchester.
‘Starrclub’ with its T-Rex swagger and jubilant chorus hooked us in to the bands sound even more. By the time ‘Detroit’ and ‘Jackie’s Racing’ came out we were ready for an album. Now, over 25 years later Bite It and Young Tribe Rule, previously a Japanese exclusive CD, are getting the vinyl reissue treatment they deserve.
This led me to dig out my old battered copy of Bite It to revisit those songs of my youth. I thought it would be fun to write about them as if they were just releasing the album today.
It also got me thinking about what the writing process for the album was like and what the bands main musical influences at the time were. Who better to tell us than Whiteout’s guitarist, Eric Lindsay.
“The album was recorded over a couple of years over three or four sessions in three different studios with three different engineers! The songs tended to be written by Andrew and Paul who would then bring them to rehearsal where we would arrange them together. Inspiration came in many forms but Jackie’s Racing , for example, was inspired by a newspaper headline about BBC legend Jackie Bird!!”
“Paul was really the musical director of the band and had a vast knowledge (and record collection) of all shades. He tended to be in charge of the tour bus playlist!! We listened to a lot of what you would expect in the way of 60s and 70s psychedelic pop and rock, but also lots of jazz, soul, R&B and rap.”
So with that knowledge let’s stick the record on and give it a spin.
The album opens on the stuttering, stop start riff of ‘Thirty Eight’. A real party song if ever there was one. It’s a perfect way to start. Between Caldwell’s ebullient vocal delivery and Lindsay’s call and response guitar lines it kicks thing off at pace, setting the scene nicely.
The single ‘No Time’ is next with its uber optimistic lyric and energetic delivery this should’ve been a much bigger hit. Really pay attention to the melodic bass on this one. Carroll picking out a counter to Lindsay’s lead. It’s pop perfection. You can enjoy that classic performance from The Word here.
We get a slight change in pace for the acoustic led ‘We Should Stick Together’. The country style licks on show here giving a nod to the Faces whilst the melody, clearly Chilton inspired, providing a neat foil.
Side B starts with the latter-day ‘Maggie May’, ‘Jackie’s Racing’. It’s rare you hear an acoustic lead guitar line these days, never mind one this good. The lad’s harmony vocals are on point here and no wonder it was their highest performing single.
We head off into cosmic rock territory with ‘Shine on You’ next. The descending chords of the chorus are absolutely devastating. Especially after the drone-like bassline in the verses. Again, check out the fingerboard gymnastics Carroll is demonstrating. This track wouldn’t be out of place on Dr Byrds & Mr Hyde, from me that’s as high a compliment as it gets.
The side closes out with ‘No More Tears’, an epic ballad. Hewn from the same rock as Richards and Jagger it builds slowly to its anthemic refrain of “you’ve got to get someone in your life”. Smith’s sympathetic stick work is superb as is Lindsay’s guitar, in perpetual motion. Fret work rivalling anything his label mate John Squire produced.
The second disc moves on with the light and shade of the rockier ‘Altogether’. This song makes a great use of trading the lighter sound of the acoustic with the more bass heavy tones of the chugging electric guitar. Result being it’s incredibly catchy and a real earworm. Man, this band had hooks for weeks.
The sleazy drawl intro of ‘You Drag Me’ sounds like the guitar trying to have a drunken conversation in a dark and dingy night club. Again, it’s Smith’s steady rhythm that keeps this one on track with the band swaggering around their instruments in a quite heady way.
After all that we’re ready to chill out a bit. Thankfully the band agrees and they treat us to the ballad ‘Baby, Don’t Give Up On Me Yet’. How are we this far into the album and the songwriting quality just keeps going up? Lindsay is on fire throughout with his deft lead being the counter to Caldwell’s vocal.
The closing side opens with the beautiful ‘You Left Me Seeing Stars’. The Chiltonesque guitars soar over Caldwell’s longing vocal. The bass providing a potent counter melody that cuts through in the instrumental breaks. This allows Lindsay the room to create a wall of guitars in the closing section that slowly fades from view.
‘Everyday’ does that amazing trick Whiteout do so well. The verses move along all languid and serpentine before the choruses explode. With the addition of a brass section courtesy of the NFL Horns this is a serious explosion of hooks and licks.
That leaves the final cut on the album to be ‘Untitled’. A string laden ballad that comes straight from the heart. Fans of Big Star will find a lot to love here. The complex verse structure and chord changes into the aaaahs that lead us into the next verse are sublime. This is the perfect way to round out this incredible collection of songs.
Unlike like a lot of their 90’s alumni, Whiteout’s debut album remains as vital and refreshing to listen to as it did back in 1995. There’s a timeless quality to the songwriting and performances in these grooves that will endear their sound to all the generations to come.
Bite It and Young Tribe Rule are available now on vinyl from Demon Music Group and from your favourite record shops.
The pandemic has been an absolute disaster for the world, putting it lightly. Every now and then however a wee ray of light glints through and brings us a moment of joy. Such is the music of LA based musicians, Lauren Andino and Glenn Fryatt.
During 2020 Andino began posting snippets of guitar and Moog compositions from her rehearsal space online as a pandemic sound journal. Fryatt was rehearsing in the same building, heard her music and wondered if she wanted to add drums. The rest, they say, is history.
In August 2021 TREMOURS released ‘Downtown Demos’, a three-song EP of demo recordings which blew my mind. This trio of tracks really got the buzz going about the band. ‘Burn to Today’ especially piquing my interest.
Fast forward to today and the band have just released the Affectations EP on Little Cloud Records. I asked Lauren to tell me a bit about how writing and recording this EP differed from the Downtown Demos?
“The songs on this Affectations EP were written around the same time as the downtown demos, but the recording was different. We went into a real studio (Golden Beat) to track drums and vocals. I recorded the guitar and Moog parts at our rehearsal space though, same as before. And for these new tracks, James Aparicio mixed them at his studio in London.”
The EP opens on the title track. Andino’s breathy vocals are solid as a rock throughout, leading us, like a mantra, into her dream. Her guitar lines are like shards of glass ringing in the sunlight playing off the pulsing Moog backing. Fryatt’s drums are incredibly thoughtful, picking out the gaps nicely, building in complexity to a quite wonderful conclusion.
The band turn in their reimagining of my fellow Scot’s The Jesus and Mary Chain with ‘On The Wall’. It gets off to a pacy start with Fryatt’s drums calling the shots. Andino’s signature guitars come in picking out the melody. Every so often a wail of looming fuzzed out feedback comes into earshot threatening to envelope the whole song before disappearing again. It’s Andino’s hypnotic vocals that focus our attention and guide us through to the realisation at the end of the song, “I’m like the clock, On the wall”.
The EP closes on the pulsing Moog polyrhythms of ‘Port Children’. Quite different in texture to the previous tracks it’s a fitting close to the EP with its more muted tones. Leaning into the psychedelic scene with its raga drones and cyclical vocal pattern. The explosive coda elevates this song to my EP highlight and there couldn’t be a stronger finish to the EP than this. Leave em begging for more!
This duo has bloomed into something really quite special. Andino brings mind and soul to the music whilst Fryatt is the heart and pulse. One cannot exist without the other. The ambient soundscapes, the swells and waves of the guitar and Moog are brought into focus with the strict punctuation of the drums. Translating them into the tightly formed songs you hear on this EP. I can’t wait to hear what’s next.
The Affectations EP is available now from Tremours Bandcamp page. The band have a couple of Los Angeles live dates coming up, catch them if you can.
AUG 21 SUN Harvard & Stone @ 8:00pm Los Angeles, CA, United States
OCT 13 THU Zebulon @ 8:00pm Los Angeles, CA, United States
US psychedelic gazers The Stargazer Lilies return with a new studio album three years after their outstanding 2019 release, Occabot. The album was recorded over the last few years in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania, Austin, TX and Central Florida. Cosmic Tidal Wave is due to be released on October 14th, here’s what the band say about the direction this new album goes in.
“Cosmic Tidal Wave is a classic shoegaze/psychedelic album but it also pushes out in many directions, incorporating elements of Bossa Nova, Trip Hop, Paisley Underground and even Experimental Orchestral Soundscapes. The album feels beachy and summery and a little less dark than previous TSL releases, while still remaining dangerous.”
Ahead of the release of the album the band have treated us to a new single called ‘Bending The Lines’. It’s a sumptuous slice of technicolour psychedelia. It swaggers along at a steady gait like a summer walk through a field of flowers. Warped synth and those trademark wailing guitars provide a stunning foil to Kim’s, as ever, beautiful vocals.
It’s a spellbinding introduction to an album that is sure to blow minds.
Cosmic Tidal Wave is going to be the first release on the bands own record label. Kim Field and John Cep of The Stargazer Lilies & Soundpool have teamed up with Thom Yanochko of Hypnagogia Entertainment to form Floravinyl Records, a new independent artist centric boutique record label. With this band at the helm, I can’t wait to see what records they release.
Head on over to Bandcamp to buy the single ‘Bending The Lines’ now or catch it on your favourite streaming platform.
Back in May I covered the latest single from dream pop musician and producer Jamie Duddy aka Dreamback. ‘Sometimes’ was a dramatic change in direction from the woozy, laid-back sounds of his Asleep EP to a more direct indie pop song. I was really excited to check out his new EP in full, titled Awake. You can see he is carrying a theme through all his work. Here’s how Duddy describes how he conceived the ideas across both EP’s.
“ The ideas for Asleep and Awake were conceived together, the idea being that Asleep had more dreamy atmospheric sound and Awake a little bit more brighter and direct, ‘poppier’ sound which allowed me to explore influences from stuff like The Shins, Pavement and Rogue Wave”
The EP opens on the upbeat pop sounds of ‘Sometimes’, check out what I thought over here.
Next up is the track I premiered on my DKFM show in July, ‘Maybe She Will’. A call back in style to his earlier work. Its reverb drenched and lush instrumentation compliment his hushed and measured vocal. This is my EP highlight and one I’m sure will be featuring on a lot of summer playlists.
‘Jasmine Molly’, an ode to one of Duddy’s sisters, revisits that Primitives like sound with Duddy trading vocals with his partner Laura Beth. The jangliest guitars remind me of later Ultra Vivid Scene in places, in a spaced out, cosmic sounding way.
The pace comes down for the balladlike ‘Little Trees’. A beautiful, summery guitar jam over Laura Beth’s swoon some oohs and aahs. It’s a very relaxing number.
‘Willow’ reminds of very early Blur from their Leisure period. There something quintessentially English about this song. It might be Duddy’s enunciation or the melody of the song. It conjures up images of London in the summer heat.
The EP closes on the instrumental ’18.05’ his song to his other sister. This song shimmers like a still ponds surface on the brightest day. The heat of the sun is palpable as you let the song was over you. It’s a glorious way to sign off.
Again, Duddy has produced a cohesively written and produced set of songs that lift your spirits and make you smile. Each of his releases tell a story and he keeps impressing me with the consistency of quality across all the tracks.
The Awake EP will be released on July 28 over on the Dreamback Bandcamp page but you can pre-order now.
After the recent reissue of Engineers early releases, I was over the moon to hear that Mark Peters was releasing a new album called Red Sunset Dreams on Sonic Cathedral. I absolutely loved his last solo outing, Innerland, so I was excited to hear what he had in store for us.
“Red Sunset Dreams’ is another album about an imaginary landscape. ‘Innerland’ was inspired by a move back to my hometown of Wigan and the memories it stirred up, but ‘Red Sunset Dreams’ looks out across the Atlantic, inspired by my lifelong obsession with country and Americana music.“
I’ll be breaking Red Sunset Dreams down track by track nearer its September 16 release date so watch this space.
In the meantime, Peters is treating us to the first single from the album, its opening track, ‘Switch On The Sky’. For this one he is in illustrious company with One Doves Dot Allison featuring on lead vocals. He has this to say on Allison’s involvement.
“I regard Dot highly as an artist, but it’s her exploration of similar ideas on One Dove’s cover of ‘Jolene’ or BJ Cole playing on ‘Tomorrow Never Comes’ from her first solo album ‘Afterglow’ made me think she would be perfect”. “Our first conversation included the names Gene Clark, Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris, so it was clear that a collaboration would go well.”
The track opens on Allisons hushed tones picking out the verse lyrics with a percussive reverence. The chorus brings in technicolour flourishes with Allison’s vocal treated to a psychedelic filter. The coda of “Now is the time” is sung like a mantra to the early morning sun.
This is a great introduction to the album and I’m sure this will appear on a great many summer playlists. Check out the video for the song here.
Mark has recently put a brand new three-piece live band together and will be playing a series of shows following the release of ‘Red Sunset Dreams’. The following dates have just been announced:
Here at Static Sounds Club, I’m no stranger to the music of The Churchill Garden, the transatlantic dreampop duo comprised of Andy Jossi and Krissy Vanderwoude. Their music is a regular on my turntable so I was really happy to hear that new single is being released. I was keen to find out what ‘Always There’ was about, here’s what the band had to say.
“This one will especially appeal to fans of The Chameleons, U2 and Lush. A sweet song about true friendship and the gratitude and reassurance that comes along with finding those loyal friends in life. Big love in the form of a song going out to those “one in a million” friends who are always there, unconditionally.”
For me this sounds just like the optimistic and positive vibe that drew me to the band in the first place.
The song drives along at pace, the lyrics sung with a percussive rhythm that hits the accents on the chiming guitars. On the subject of those guitars, they’re massive. Like stadium big. I see where they were driving at with the U2 reference. As with all the music Jossi makes that’s only one texture on display. The unique sonic recipe he has for his guitar mix always floors me.
Vanderwoude’s vocal is, as always, uplifting and deeply personal. You feel you are in conversation with her. Highly relatable lyrics like “The world could use a few more like you” firmly place you in the song. That is the measure of her sheer skill as a lyricist. Making the listener feel that it’s their song which takes them out of that passive experience. Making them actively feel.
This is yet another buoyant and uplifting track from two of the coolest people in the shoegaze and dream pop world.
‘Always There’ is out now over on The Churchill Gardens Bandcamp page and all the usual streaming platforms.
You can follow The Churchill Garden on social media here…
Back in 1990 Greenock born musician, Sheer Taft was signed to the world-famous Creation Records label. There he released the cult classic single ‘Cascades’. It was a song out of time, carving its own highly influential spot in Creation history. Fast forward to 2022, now based in Spain, Sheer returns with his first new album since Absolutely Sheer in 1992.
And Then There Were Four is quite different to that low fi, dub/house sound Sheer created back in the 90’s. He has enlisted the help of friends including Ed Chapman; a renowned English artist, members of Primal Scream as well as his good friend and band mate Robert McGovern from The Method One.
Sheer explains how the name of the album came about.
“In 2018 after a particularly messy session involving Pacharan, a Spanish version of Pernod, the name ‘and then there were four’ was bandied around as my fellow travellers fell by the wayside. It sounded like a Spaghetti western, and the idea was hatched.”
And it’s with that very tone we saddle up and head into the opening title track. It’s an expansive and immersive experience evoking the dusty ride of our hero across the dusty plains. It has it all. Spanish guitar, tubular bells, violins and a choir. It’s a real statement of intent and sets the scene nicely for the album as a whole. On how they captured this sound Sheer had this to say.
“We began recording in Artesonao studios in Malaga, myself and Ed Chapman. We were ably assisted by Rachel Hewitt on violin and we recorded a dozen or so tunes in a week. We recruited the services of Darrin Mooney and Martin Duffy of Primal Scream on drums and keys, both of whom just managed to avoid being locked down in Spain as the borders closed at the beginning of the pandemic. Andrew Innes assisted on additional guitars, celeste and bells…lots of bells. Robert McGovern came out to Malaga to play on a few tracks also. We had the voice of Justine Petty – Burrows a Canadian chanteuse to be a foil to my less than acrobatic voice.”
The pace slows for ‘Everybody’s Been Somebody’s Fool’. Sheers rich, deep voice adding gravitas and a world worn atmosphere to this southern fried ballad. There’s a gospel influence in Petty-Burrows backing vocal which lifts the track to another level. Couple that with the country licks from the guitars and the mournful violin complimenting the piano and you have a stone-cold classic.
The lilting instrumental ‘Gypsy River’ follows. I love how this song builds. The song periodically pauses. After each pause new elements join the throng. The violin echoing over the gently strummed and picked acoustic guitars being my personal highlight.
The sun comes out on the next instrumental, ‘After Midnight’. It’s a sunny, soulful trip. Fender Rhodes picks out the melody while a smooth guitar lays down a feelgood groove. This is windows down, cruising down the highway music.
The weather stays the same on ‘The Sun Is Ours’. An acoustic track led by Petty-Burrows gorgeous vocal. Reminiscent of a lost James Taylor or Tim Buckley track it cements a smile on your face. I wanted this one to go on for longer. Surely the sign of a great song.
‘Mezcal Dreams’ maintains the upbeat acoustic vibe with a glorious off kilter counter melody going on from what sounds like a theremin. As soon as this song broke out the ray gun noises in the last 45 seconds or so I flashed on The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band for a moment. A band whose music I love. Which made me wonder what influences Sheer was drawing on when writing this album.
“The record was a return to my favourite music of my youth, soaking up Dylan, Scott Walker, Tim Buckley, Tim Rose, Tim Hardin and the soundtracks of Morricone, like an old compilation tape from 1986. Ed and I based the record on a screenplay being written by him and his brother Ivan Chapman, a tale of a loner, returning to old haunts with trepidation and an awareness of the inevitable dangers he had left behind.”
We revisit the title track and the main musical motifs of the album on ‘Four Ride Out’. Equally as epic but performed acoustically with a bongo backing. It certainly delivers the goods.
‘Enemigo De Todo’ follows with a grittier more direct attack. Translating as ‘Enemy of Everything’ it conjures up images of our lone gunman on the warpath. A fuzzed-out guitar adds a new texture to the sonic palate of the album. It really makes you sit up and take notice. There’s something of the Arthur Lee’s about this song. I could definitely hear this on a Love album.
The joyful ‘Alegria’ follows. This song is all dancing light through the trees, bouncing off the babbling stream in myriad colours. You can feel your spirit lift from the opening notes.
Sheer draws on his inner Dylan for ‘Chasing Down A Dream’. It’s poetic storytelling in the spirit of the great man himself. Couple that with a killer backing track and you have the recipe for an amazing song. I love how it transforms in the closing minute with that soaring guitar solo.
‘The Ghost’ is an eerie instrumental whose chorus pulses like a heartbeat before drifting back into the dream of the verses. Really pay close attention to all the guitars on this one. There’s some pretty acrobatic playing going on.
We hear the soulful tones of Petty-Burrows again on the wistful ‘Time’. There’s a yearning. A longing in the bones of this song. It sent me back to the beginning over and over to work out what it was. Why was this song affecting me so much? I still don’t fully understand why, maybe it’s the ever-evolving backing track, maybe it’s when Petty-Burrows sings “sometimes” at that key moment. I just don’t know. What I do know is that I bloody love this song and it’s my album stand out track.
‘Requiem for Pablo’ takes us back, once again, to the title track for a fresh spin on the epic musical motifs of this album. You can check it out for yourself here.
We close out the album on the mournful farewell of ‘(There Goes) A Friend Of Mine’. A beautiful vocal again from Petty-Burrows interspersed with spoken word vocals in the style of Johnny Cash. The song is impactful and is the perfect bookend to this album, this whole listening experience.
With ‘And Then There Were Four’ Sheer is stepping away from the sounds we know him for and delving into his musical memory. In the process he’s undoubtedly soaked up the influences of his Spanish surroundings to create something truly unique and special. There’s a tale being told throughout this cohesive and utterly immersive album. Sit down, put the needle on the record and let Sheer tell you all about it.
‘And Then There Were Four’ is out on August 5 2022. The album is available for pre order now from Glass Modern on Bandcamp. You can grab a digital copy or, if you’re quick, there’s a small number of copies left on dark blue vinyl.
There are some labels which I don’t just like, I love them. Like, love them in a ….I need them to exist so I can too kinda way. The bands this label has put out over the years have become some of my absolute favourite go to records. Who am I talking about? Sonic Cathedral of course. It’s in the title innit!
Sonic Cathedral began life as a club night where Nathaniel Cramp would host shoegaze and other dreamy sounding acts to give them a forum. It cannot be under estimated the impact and importance of these nights to the UK shoegaze scene. Cramp was creating a space for the shoegaze sound when all around him had written it off as dead genre. In those early years Sonic Cathedral saw performances from the likes of The Radio Department, Engineers, Mark Peters, iLiKETRAiNS, Secret Machines, Neil Halstead, Spectrum, Maps, Chapterhouse, pretty much every member of Ride ultimately leading to the first show in 20 years from Slowdive.
It was in 2006 that Cramp decided to launch Sonic Cathedral as record label. Initially releasing a series of seven-inch singles from the likes of The Tamborines, Mark Gardner and School of Seven Bells. Since those early days the label has continued on as the standard bearer for the shoegaze scene in the UK and across the world. Let’s have a look at some of the acts who have had their music released by the label over the last few years.
Cramp was quick to spot the potential in this band from Chicago. His keen ear could hear the 90’s aesthetic and gaze influence in their sound and quickly secured their first ever physical single release with ‘Ballroom Dance Scene’ and ‘Sea Life Sandwich Boy’. The band have since released their debut album on Matador records and are busy conquering the world. It all started here though with this pair of magical songs.
Hailing from Malmö in Sweden this trio of diehard shoegazers first met Cramp after a Slowdive show in London. This has led to Sonic Cathedral releasing a single, the self-titled EP and of course, their stunning debut album Pink Noise. If you haven’t heard them before they’re like a fuzzy, dreamy blend of Alvvays, The Cure and Stereolab. Pink Noise is an absolutely incredible debut album and has a really timeless sound.
The Ride guitarist has stepped into the front of stage to release two critically acclaimed albums via Sonic Cathedral, The View From Halfway Down from 2020 and this years Flicker. Bell has carved his own sound with his take on modern pop psychedelia, folk and chiming sixties odysseys. If your only experience of his work is from his Ride back catalogue or his time in Oasis then you really need to check these albums out.
Austrian duo Molly took inspiration from the landscape around their home in the Tyrol in the far west of the country for their sound. Their mountainous and glacial debut album All That Ever Could Have Been is alpine in scale and texture. Each track expansive and immersive, an all-consuming listen and it’s no wonder Sonic Cathedral had to get this album out there.
Sennen fuse the post rock sound with that early 90’s gaze aesthetic to produce a sound that is all their own. Sonic Cathedral reissued their classic debut album Widows in 2021. Remastered and including exclusive additional tracks it was a smash success. They couldn’t have a better home for this release than with Sonic Cathedral.
Former Mogwai collaborator and electronica specialist Martin Jenkins aka Pye Corner Audio is set to release his second album for Sonic Cathedral. After the runaway success of his Social Dissonance live recording of his set at the labels 15th Birthday party at the Social in London, Let’s Emerge is out on 15 July this year. This one is a less shadowy feeling album with Andy Bell featuring on half the tracks fleshing out the sound. His music never fails to excite so make sure you check him out.
Mildred Maude are improvisational geniuses. Able to take a groove and run and evolve it into a 30-minute set which hypnotises and beguiles you as a live band they can’t be beat. Sonic Cathedral managed to get them to bottle that energy and put it out on their sophomore album Sleepover. I caught these guys supporting bdrmm and I was transfixed. If you get the opportunity to see them live grab it! You won’t be disappointed.
Lastly, we have the labels runaway success. Hulls finest, bdrmm. Since releasing their debut album Bedroom they have gone from strength to strength. Gone from playing small venues to supporting the likes of Ride and Mogwai on some of the world’s biggest stages. This band have worked incredibly hard, honing their sound and stage show and it really shows. Their latest release ‘Port’ sold out in under 60 seconds on Bandcamp. That is testament to both the talent of the band and the support and nurturing environment fostered by Cramp at Sonic Cathedral.
This is certainly not an exhaustive list of all the acts on Sonic Cathedral but I do hope it has given you a taste of what they have on offer. Make sure you follow Sonic Cathedral on Bandcamp to check out all these amazing acts and much more. Let’s not forget the legendary Shoegazer t-shirts as well!
I’d just like to say a massive thank you to Nat for all the hard work he pours into Sonic Cathedral. Here’s to many more years to come of pioneering gaze and adventures in sound.
You can follow Sonic Cathedral on social media here ….
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