Chapterhouse - Whirlpool + Pearl EP (1991)

Chapterhouse formed in 1987, but they spent years before they even put down a demo tape. They would rather focus on their live performances, and to perfection their music before releasing it. In 1990 they released their first several singles and EPs, including Pearl, and in 1991 their debut full-length, Whirlpool. At the time acclaimed but overshadowed, it is now considered a shoegaze classic.

Chapterhouse was originally heavily inspired by Spacemen 3, but with the Pearl EP the My Bloody Valentine-influences was seemingly becoming bigger, and that element only improved with Whirlpool. Initially, however, they were labeled alongside the likes of Spacemen 3, and Spacemen 3 would soon return interest in Chapterhouse. After discovering them in 1988, Sonic Boom was eager to release Chapterhouse-material on his label Bop-a-Sonic. While that never happened, they would eventually sign with Dedicated Records, Spacemen 3's former label.

Whirlpool is upbeat and blissful at one moment, and dark and sluggish at the next. It sounds like a nice mix of Slowdive's ethereal dream pop and My Bloody Valentine's harsh shoegaze, but at times much more pop-oriented than both. "Pearl" is among the catchiest of shoegaze and their biggest, er, 'hit', "Treasure" is repetitive and mesmerising, while "Something More" would be an excellent album closer if it wasn't for the 2 bonus tracks included here. Those 2 bonus tracks - "Mesmerise" and "Precious One" - are however absolutely excellent.

I just realised that the cover is probably a cat. I always thought it looked like a deformed wookie.

Whirlpool
Pearl EP

My Bloody Valentine - Isn't Anything (1988), You Made Me Realise (1988)

My Bloody Valentine started out as a post-punk sort of band, but when they'd got to their debut Isn't Anything, their Jesus and the Mary Chain-influences were becoming more prominent. They started experimenting with noise, partially copying JAMC, but differing in many ways; their noise was harsher, and they used vocals as an instrument. The pop element was kept. More importantly, their noise was more distorting and wrapping-you-in than JAMC's background white noise, a sound that would heavily influence the Shoegaze-genre it kickstarted. (allmusic describes it as a 'droning haze'). (NME dubbed the genre Shoegaze due to many of the bands' static stage-performances, looking down, as if they were 'gazing their shoes'. Rather, they were concentrating on pedals, but some did it for image, and the vocalist of Moose taped songtexts to the floor for a while).

You Made Me Realise (picture) was released some months before Isn't Anything, and is their first to clearly illustrate the JAMC-influence.

[taken down]

PS: Flytende Bølge is once again wounded, though much worse this time. His right hand is smashed up, due to some silly not-really-an-accident. So focus your energy and heal him with your spiritual power and whatnot.

Flying Saucer Attack - Flying Saucer Attack (1993)

Emerging from shoegaze, Flying Saucer Attack were consciously obscure and experimental. Heavily influenced with the DIY aesthetics, they recorded most of their material at home on some sort of stereo system, producing a lo-fi sound that fits the music.

Flying Saucer Attack sounds like an experimental version of Jesus & the Mary Chain's Psychocandy. It has the same noise-pop guitars, it has the accessible hooks, and like on Psychocandy, a lot of the songs resemble each other (though not as excessively). They can be divided into two groups: "Moonset," "Popul Vuh 1" and "Popul Vuh 2" on one side - the latter 2 homaging the krautrock band of the same same - are droning experimentality sounding like I-don't-know-what - indian rituals or something. The 7 remaining songs all draw from the same noise-pop sound. As mentioned, Jesus & the Mary Chain is definitely an inspiration, but there are elements of My Bloody Valentine in there, too; the haze that sounds like the album cover looks, and the transparent vocals could possibly resemble lesser aggressive versions of songs like "I Only Said" and "To Here Knows When."

When I first found this, I thought this sound was something regular in shoegaze. I was amazed by the swirling noise of "Wish" and "Make Me Dream," so I was pretty dissappointed when I realised its uniqueness. Much due to Dave Pearce's wanting to be unknown, and to be highly experimental, they never became known; but many regard this as a shoegaze classic, alongside albums like Chapterhouse's Whirlpool and Ride's Nowhere. Flying Saucer Attack went on to create an album as highly regarded as this. On Further, they experiment with silent noise, and making shoegaze with acoustic guitars, still drawing from the dreaminess and JAMC-influences, but with a new, unique sound.

Flying Saucer Attack can be overwhelming and tiresome; you can be left in awe, but also in exhaustion, or often both. "The Season Is Ours" therefore fits perfectly as a quiet outro, soothing in contrast with every other song on the album, and probably an inspiration for what later became Further.

Flying Saucer Attack