My favourite psychedelic gazers are back with a second teaser for their new album Cosmic Tidal Wave. The Stargazer Lilies return to spread the ‘Vibes of Love’. My mind was spinning after hearing the previous single, ‘Bending the Lines’, so I literally had to be scraped off the ceiling to write this.
‘Vibes of Love’ is classic Stargazer Lilies. It harks back to that otherworldly sound they created back on Occabot. It opens with that off-kilter synth sound against Kim Fields’ ethereal vocals. Then we take off to that corner of the galaxy where only they exist.
As always, it’s John Ceps’ guitars that create the mystic mist in which the song exists. It’s hard to comprehend that it’s four people making this mountainous wall of sound. I use that word deliberately. Every time I listen to The Stargazer Lilies their music takes me away to some alien mountain top, in a psychedelic, multi-coloured blizzard. It’s so rare that I’m transported so vividly in my head that I cherish my time listening to this band and I know you will too.
You can check out their self-shot and produced video below. It’s almost like they read my mind.
Head on over to Bandcamp to buy the single ‘Vibes of Love’ now or catch it on your favourite streaming platform.
Back in July, I posted my first impressions of the new track from Mark Peters, ‘Switch On The Sky’. It was a beautiful mantra to the sun sung by One Doves Dot Allison. I’ve now been living with the album it comes from for a couple of months now and I think it’s about time I tell you all about it.
The album opens on ‘Switch on the Sky’, a perfect introduction to the chilled Americana about to unfold. Please do go check out my earlier blog to find out my thoughts in more depth.
We then neatly segue into ‘Golden Cloud’. A gloriously airy instrumental in which it feels like you’re being basked in the golden rays of the morning sun. A gently picked banjo plays off against some stunning pedal steel.
On that subject, the album features the pedal steel playing of BJ Cole. On the subject of Cole agreeing to play on the album, Peters had this to say.
“Ibecame obsessed with finding tracks where pedal steel guitar was the main, if not the only instrument,” he explains. “People like Chuck Johnson, Buddy Emmons and Luke Schneider. I really enjoyed incorporating these instruments into my own tracks and just exploring the tones of them rather than trying to attempt authentic country playing. Having BJ play on the record crystallized the whole concept,” Mark explains. “I love his playing on things like ‘Silver Moon Over Sleeping Steeples’ by David Sylvian. He’s possibly the UK’s greatest living country musician.”
We emerge into ‘Silver River’ next. The track slowly reveals itself. The pedal steel flutters, like the sunlight dappling the water. It’s a peaceful meditation in musical form and, for me, demonstrates the imagination Peters possesses. Leveraging the sweeping tones of Coles playing by wrapping it layers of reverb is a genius move!
Things pick up pace next with ‘Dusty Road Ramble’. There’s a real swagger in the duelling guitars which will get your foot tapping. The title is a nod to the group originally put together by Hank Walters, the late father of country music in Liverpool. This, however, stretches that country motif to its limit pulling the song into another genre entirely. However, could I nail down what genre that is? Not sure I could. Again, a sign we are listening to a genius at work.
‘The Musical Box’ continues that genre-defying work by deftly weaving some electronica through the luscious guitars. It’s not long before the banjo reappears reminding us, that we are in American skies. Soaring over the desert roads below. I love how this album triggers images in your head, feelings and emotions that tie you to the US.
There’s something about the next track, ‘Tamaroa’ that sends my mind straight to Brian Wilson’s work on the lost Beach Boys album, Smile. Like Peters, he too was writing a love letter to the USA. It’s the almost pastoral feel of the music or is it the modular approach to the song’s construction perhaps. Whatever it is, it’s Wonderful and it’s definitely giving me Good Vibrations.
The title track is up next and from the off delivers a hallucinatory experience. It almost feels like you’re listening to two songs at the same time yet they are completely in simpatico, lifting and augmenting the other. It’s simply stunning.
The album closes out with the exultant tones of ‘Sundowning’. Emerging slowly from a dream state the song blooms from almost nothing into this celebratory chant. The feeling of joy in this song is quite overwhelming. It feels like coming home. Like remembering who you really are and what you need to do. It’s such a powerfully beautiful way to end this experience.
I say experience because in Red Sunset Dream Peters has created a place for the listener to disappear for a while. An album so deftly woven together that it feels like one continuous piece rather than songs put together in order. Many have attempted what Peters makes look so easy. But it’s rare that it is pulled off in such a way that grabs you by the heart and leads you, gently on a journey. A journey into the sky and over landscapes you never thought you’d ever see. This album has won my heart and, if you give it a chance, it will win yours too.
Red Sunset Dreams is available now on a variety of coloured vinyl options and CD from Mark Peters Bandcamp, Sonic Cathedral and Rough Trade.
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…
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