Galaxie 500- "Here She Comes Now" (1990) Live U.K. T.V. Performance

Dean Wareham & co. channeling the VU and getting it right....

The Horrors- "Mirror's Image" Video (2009)

From side project (Cat's Eyes) to main gig (The Horrors): Goth is definitely on an upswing

Ride- Nowhere (1990) 20th Anniversary Edition (Bonus Disc) MP3 & FLAC -For iggy1-

"And the train rushes past like a day gone too fast."

While My Bloody Valentine's Loveless is considered, in most quarters, as the holy grail of the original UK Shoegaze movement, a strong case can be made that Ride's debut long-player, Nowhere, is just as good if not better (though vastly different). Previous to Nowhere, Ride had released several EPs that positioned them as a band on the cusp of brilliance; these early releases all revealed a sound forged out of antecedents such as The Jesus and Mary Chain and the aforementioned My Bloody Valentine, but in addition, Ride sounded like a band who had spent some time listening to Nuggets -era psychedelia. While the foundation for Nowhere is clearly discernible in these EPs, the album itself sees the band transform these influences into something abrasively vibrant and recognizably their own, and if this isn't enough, beneath all the jangle, distortion, and reverb are some pretty fine pop songs for those with ears to hear. On the superb opening track "Seagull," Ride is at its psychedelic best, complete with backward-masked guitars, duo vocals by Mark Gardener and Andy Bell, and a killer hook buried beneath the guitar squall. Another standout is "Vapour Trail," a track featuring some lovely guitar jangle and a more solemn tone while still retaining the power of the more intense songs. While Nowhere is rightly labeled a Shoegaze album, throughout the proceedings, Ride seem intent on playing with some of the conventions of the genre, which might be the reason the album hasn't aged a day in 20 years.  Guitar-based pop simply doesn't get any better than this.

Ride- Smile (1990) MP3 & FLAC

"And when I see you sliding past, I make my plans, and then my plans slip through my fingers just like sand."

While My Bloody Valentine is often cited as the pinnacle of the Shoegaze movement of the late eighties and early nineties, Ride's first smattering of EPs and their debut full-length, Nowhere, are nearly as good, with the added bonus of pushing the "wall of sound" approach into regions more visceral and less fussed-over than their contemporaries. On Smile, a compilation of the band's first two EPs for Creation, the influence of Psychocandy is palpable, and like The Jesus and Mary Chain, Ride are careful to wrap their layers of distortion around sugar-sweet garage-pop gems. For example, on one of the album's obvious highlights, "Chelsea Girl," Ride tap into a mid-sixties garage-psych sound but take it somewhere new with heavily distorted guitar squalls and Loz Colbert's manic drumming. While "Silver" heads into darker neo-psychedelic territory, "Furthest Sense" nods in the direction of My Bloody Valentine, but whereas that band buries melody in layers of guitar refraction, Ride pushes the song's pop structure to the foreground. Though Ride's debut album (and masterpiece) is more fully-formed and better recorded, the EPs comprising Smile should by no means be overlooked.

The House of Love- S/T "Butterfly Album" (1990) MP3 & FLAC

"In a garden in the house of love, sitting lonely on a plastic chair, sun is cruel when he hides away. I need a sister, I'll just stay."

A lush, stunning, overwrought masterpiece of an album, The House of Love's second consecutive self-titled LP (the first long-player born of their ill-fated relationship with Fontana Records) stands as one of the great indie releases of the nineties, even though its status as the missing link between Post-Punk and Brit-Pop has all but assured it of a slow descent into relative obscurity. Legend has it that the recording sessions for the album were a nightmare, as the band was not only quickly fragmenting, but was also saddled with an artistically unsympathetic producer. Despite all this, House of Love is both cohesive and dynamic. The album opens with "Hannah," a song built around some lovely echoing guitar parts, which are cut through by Guy Chadwick's measured vocals until the chorus, where things are kicked up a sonic notch- overall, an outstandingly constructed song. The next track, a re-recording of the pre-album single "Shine On," is just as good; though the lyrics are obscure, melodically, this is one of The House of Love's most memorable songs. The final part of the opening trilogy, "Beatles and the Stones," is a shimmering, gorgeous ballad, whose theme is more about isolation than sixties nostalgia. Criminally out of print, this is, nevertheless, an album not to be missed.

Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions- Suzanne EP (2002) MP3 & FLAC

"I don't think I'll come around, letting my hair hang down, making my way through your door, I ain't gonna do that no more. "

Released a year after Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions' debut, Bavarian Fruit Bread, had hit the stores, the Suzanne EP seemed something like an afterthought at the time, but in addition to recycling one of the album tracks as a single, it offers three b-sides, which, given the dearth of material from Sandoval, makes it well worth having. Though not as strong as the earlier EP, At the Doorway Again, it does feature the sultry "These Things," which finds Hope very much in Mazzy Star mode. Beautiful stuff.

Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions- At the Doorway Again EP (2000) MP3 & FLAC

"She's got a smile like a flower. She looks so fine by the hour."

Following the release of Among My Swan, Mazzy Star went on permanent hiatus in terms of recording new material, and it wasn't until 2000 that Hope Sandoval finally surfaced again with a new band, The Warm Inventions.  Essentially a collaboration with ex-My Bloody Valentine drummer Colm O'Ciosoig, At the Doorway Again retains the narcotic atmosphere of Hope's work in Mazzy Star, but, perhaps owing to David Roback's absence, the EP seem lighter in mood with less psychedelic overtones. The obvious highlight is "Around My Smile" which replaces Mazzy's psych gloom with a moody 50s-style guitar vamp, but the deliciously thick reverb is still in full force. The real gem, however, might be "Down the Steps," a gorgeous piano ballad featuring one of Sandoval's prettiest vocals (which is really saying something).

Mazzy Star- Flowers in December EP: Parts 1 & 2 (1996) MP3 & FLAC -For ranxerox-

"In your smile there are many a ways to cut the pain."

The first single pulled from Mazzy Star's presumptive swan song (pun intended), Among My Swan, was "Flowers in December," a lovely country-tinged ballad that features Hope Sandoval on harmonica. The single was released in two parts in the UK, with each part featuring two non-LP tracks. The highlight of Part I is "Hair and Skin" written by Dan Stuart whose band, Green on Red, was a mainstay of the Paisley Underground scene.  The song is a dark psych-rock slow-burner that hearkens back to the pre-Mazzy Opal days. Part II's highlight is "Had a Thought," a simple, straightforward acoustic song featuring one of Hope's livelier vocals. While not essential by any means, non-LP tracks were a rare commodity with this band, so it's nice to hear them work their magic in a slightly less polished context.

Mazzy Star- Among My Swan (1996) MP3 & FLAC

"Take away everything that feels fine. Catch a shape in the circles of my mind."

Mazzy Star's final (?) album, Among My Swan, has long been saddled with the reputation of being inferior to the band's two earlier LPs, She Hangs Brightly  and So Tonight That I Might See. The arguments for this have ranged from "sounds too similar to the previous stuff" to "sounds too dirge-like to retain listener interest." This negative critical response was partly due to the fact that three years had passed since the release of Mazzy Star's breakthrough second album, and the hushed confidence of Among My Swan, despite evidencing a number of subtle changes to the band's sound, was deemed an unworthy product for such a long hiatus. It is true that on Among My Swan, David Roback has turned the reverb (and thus the pysch-haze) dial down a notch or two, but in its place are many new textural nuances, such as glockenspiel and harmonica, that allow the songs to tread in a slightly less claustrophobic country-folk direction. The first single, "Flowers in December," is a perfect example of this. Here, Hope Sandoval's harmonica takes the melodic lead that would have been handled by Roback's guitar on one of the previous albums. This gives the song a distinctly desolate feel, and opens things up for one of Sandoval's best vocal turns. Conversely, on "Roseblood," the psych-rock gloom returns with Sandoval's vocal at its sleepy-sultry best, but what really pulls the song together is the backwards guitar effects that handle the main instrumental breaks. A masterstroke Mr. Roback. Rather than their "weakest" album, Among My Swan is their most "underrated" album, a distinction that, while wholeheartedly undeserved, makes this album ripe for rediscovery.

Mazzy Star- So Tonight That I Might See (1993) MP3 & FLAC -For marioscafe-

"Come so close that I might see the crash of light come down on me."

While So Tonight That I Might See can certainly be considered Mazzy Star's "breakthrough" album, the irony is that, aside from David Roback's slightly more lush production, the band hadn't sacrificed any of the dark psych-rock mystique that made  She Hangs Brightly so seductive. If anything, on their second LP, Mazzy Star had distilled their unique sound, resulting in a more focused and varied set of songs that would mark the creative apex of their (unfortunately) brief recording career. So Tonight That I Might See begins with "Fade into You," easily Mazzy Star's most identifiable song, and, as hard as it is to believe, a minor hit. Despite its unlikely brush with mainstream success, the song is a dark, haunting masterpiece that lets nary a ray light in. Also deserving of mention is the cover of Arthur Lee's "Five String Serenade," an exceedingly simple acoustic-drenched ode that provides Hope Sandoval with the perfect vehicle for the sultry torpor of her vocals. The often over-looked gem on this album is the title track, which, much like the title track on the debut album, allows the band to pursue the more aggressive side of its psych-rock pedigree. Overall, an exceedingly gorgeous piece of work to be sure.

Mazzy Star- She Hangs Brightly (1990) MP3 & FLAC

"Takes me down deep and wide, pulls me through to the other side."

Hope Sandoval was originally pressed into service as the lead singer of David Roback's Paisley Underground psych-rock band Opal after Kendra Smith left the stage halfway through a show while touring in the UK in 1988. The following year, after an aborted attempt at recording a second Opal album, Ghost Highway, the band rechristened itself Mazzy Star and released its debut, She Hangs Brightly, in 1990. In the interim, Roback had traded in the gauzy, languorous T-Rex-inspired space-rock of his Opal days for a sound approximating Robbie Krieger playing the Delta Blues as a member of The Velvet Underground. And then there's Hope Sandoval's oh-so-singular vocals: sultry, child-like, vulnerable, untouchable, and ably expressing both a heartbreaking sense of desolation and a disinterested sense of separation. She Hangs Brightly contains a number of psychedelic gems, including "Halah" and their inspired cover of Slapp Happy's "Blue Flower," but often overlooked are the acoustic blues-based songs, which Sandoval's vocals sell unforgettably. She Hangs Brightly tends to be over-shadowed by the band's breakthrough follow-up, So Tonight That I Might See, but it deserves far better. Its Delta-pysch hybrid still sounds fresh, and while often emulated over the years, it has never been bested.

W@rm Gh0st- Uncut Di@m0nd EP (2011) MP3 & FLAC

"Ditch my pride and let my body go. Cells collide and burst into a glow."

Warm Ghost's Uncut Diamond EP is both claustrophobic and epic, tightly constructed and deliberately unfocused. By marrying Kraut-rock-inspired soundscapes to Shoegaze ambiguity and occasionally spiking the proceedings with a hint of eighties synth-pop cheese, Warm Ghost manages to lend a dark emotional weight to these songs, at times invoking an ethereal moodiness that recalls the heyday of the 4AD brand of Gothic dream-pop. However, things are more fragmented here, and conversely, more openly romantic in tone thanks to Paul Duncan's blurry yet heartbroken vocals. Warm Ghost's aural bricolage comes together most effectively on the single, "Open the Wormhole in Your Heart," which is an ecstatic down-tempo masterpiece featuring Duncan's most affecting vocal turn. Hopefully there's a long-player by this band on the horizon.

Warm Ghost- "Open the Wormhole in Your Heart" Video (2011)

LoFi Goth-tronic with a dash of Shoegaze, and yes, it all works to great effect. More to come.....

Cocteau Twins- Victorialand (1986) MP3 & FLAC

Because bassist Simon Raymonde was busy at the time fulfilling his 4AD "house band" duties on the second This Mortal Coil album, Filigree & Shadow, the Cocteau Twins' fourth album, Victorialand, features, as strange as it is to say, a more "stripped-down" sound in comparison to their earlier work. This doesn't mean that the songs have lost any of their trademark reverb-drenched ethereal quality, but there is a bright spaciousness to Victorialand that makes it sound, if anything, more intimate. Employing very little percussion and without Raymonde's bass, Robin Guthrie's spidery arpeggios and Elizabeth Fraser's vocal peregrinations are even more evocative and engulfing, and the more pronounced use of acoustic guitar gives the album a brittle warmth in places that is unprecedented in their earlier work. There is, perhaps, no better point of entry to the Cocteau Twins' unique sound than Victorialand.

The Jesus and Mary Chain- Darklands (1987) MP3 & FLAC -For oh hi there-

"She can take my darkest feeling, tear it up till I'm on my knees."

After Psychocandy, The Jesus and Mary Chain found themselves at something resembling an artistic crossroads. In retrospect, their debut was one of the most important records of the decade, but at the time of its release, there were many who saw its prevalent use of feedback as a gimmick. Of course, those who gave Psychocandy anything more than a cursory listen could tell there were some great songs bubbling up through the haze, so on their follow up, the Reid brothers opted to dial things down a bit. On Darklands, the songs seem more rooted in the existential twang of Lee Hazlewood than the arty dissonance of The Velvet Underground; as a result, the production is noticeably cleaner than on the previous album even if the subject-matter is as dark as ever. Songs such as "Deep One Perfect Morning" and "On the Wall" explore, in different ways, the pain born out of infatuation for another person, and each hit their mark by marrying deadpan Lou Reed-style vocals to big hooks. While not as influential as their debut, Darklands represents an artistic highpoint for The Jesus and Mary Chain, which they would spend the rest of their careers chasing under ill-fated stars. 

Cocteau Twins & Harold Budd- The Moon and the Melodies (1986) MP3 & FLAC -For Issi-

The Moon and the Melodies occupies an odd place in the Cocteau Twins' discography: while it contains a few of the band's better songs (e.g. "She Will Destroy You"), it was completely overlooked by Robin Guthrie when he remastered the Cocteau Twins catalog several years back. This slight reiterates its undeserved reputation as an inessential "ambient" album. While The Moon and the Melodies is not necessarily successful as a collaborative effort, in that it seems quite tentative in integrating the Cocteau Twins' unique vocal and guitar arrangements into Harold Budd's Eno-esque ambient soundscapes and vice versa, it does contain some memorable work by everyone involved. The final track, "Ooze Out and Away, Onehow" is, in particular, not to be missed.

The Jesus and Mary Chain- Psychocandy (1985) MP3 & FLAC -For oh hi there-

"It's so hard not to feel ashamed of the loving living games we play each day."

Most critics tend to describe Psychocandy as something of a mash-up of Beach Boys-style harmonies and Velvet Underground-inspired dissonance, and while these are unquestionably major elements helping to sculpt its overall sound, such descriptions tend to overlook just how singular this landmark album actually is. At the time of its release, Psychocandy was notorious for its piercing squalls of feedback, but looming just beneath this Noise-Rock veneer are some of the most achingly beautiful songs you're likely to hear. For example, on "Just Like Honey," the Reid brothers' naively laconic vocal harmonies coupled with the reverb-soaked production create an unlikely, and somehow perfect, marriage of Motown and Pych-Rock. To call Psychocandy "influential" does it no justice at all; the truth is, much of what followed in its wake, including everything from Shoegaze to Lo-Fi, owes a deep debt of gratitude to this album. If you've never heard Pscychocandy, I'm supremely envious; I would give anything to hear this album for the first time again.

The Jesus and Mary Chain- "Just Like Honey" Video (1985)

Does feedback sound any sweeter than this?

The House of Love- 1986-1988: The Creation Recordings (2001) MP3 & FLAC

"I sold you a favour in the dark. Got a salt dream and a red scar. Weak, bending in the wind, two good words and white skin."

Posed precariously between the death of The Smiths (and Post-Punk itself for that matter) and the rise of Brit-Pop in the early nineties, The House of Love were strangely untethered to their own time and place. As a result, though they were easily the equal of most of their Post-Punk influences, Guy Chadwick & co. were destined to fall through the cracks of commercial success. What remained after the band self-destructed in the mid-nineties due to drug abuse and record company bullshit was a waiting-to-be-rediscovered discography saturated with sublime guitar-pop, not quite Post-Punk, not quite Shoegaze, not quite Brit-Pop, but somehow transcending them all. The Creation Recordings focuses on what many believe to be the band's most fertile period, when lead guitarist Terry Bickers was still involved in the proceedings. These are gorgeous, haunting pop songs that manage to look backward and forward simultaneously, which is why, unlike many of their better known peers, The House of Love invoke a sense of timelessness with their music.

The Big Pink- "Too Young to Love" (Delorean Remix) (2009) MP3

Here's an extra relating to the previous post. This remixed version of "Too Young to Love" is actually better than the album version.