recommend me some lost shoegaze classics

Though I'm sure Ned will be here soon to "sort us out". ;-)

Drop Nineteens - Delaware
Lilys - In The Presence of Nothing
The first Henry's Dress album
For Against, perhaps?

Other than that, go and get Piano Magic's 'Low Birth Weight'.

Medicine!

Maybe not 100% shoegaze, but close enough...
The Cranes
Curve
Bleach
Swirlies

Bleah, feh. Ditto Catherine Wheel. Though Curve had their moments. Cranes were interesting, but not exactly Shoegazer.

Gah, there were a lot of dire Shoegazer bands, weren't there?

Anyone for early Moose or the Telescopes or even the Swirlies?

secret shine, smashing orange, medicine (and later on, alisons halo)

Justin referred to them in his original message (Sonny + Sam)

Me, I can't believe that no-one has mentioned Kitchens of Distinction yet. No, scratch that, actually I can.

That's The Lollies, Kate - don't you remember anything? ;-)

Everyone's mentioned everything I remember from then, and some more, but this thread is most useful for my hopefully forthcoming shoegazeish night in Bethnal Green.

Ooh, what about Dr Phibes & The House Of Wax Equations? I'm sure I liked that album at one point. Anyone gonna burn me a copy of Gala then? Pretty please...

Dammit, you people have already covered things pretty well, what's left! Even Clairecords got a mention!

Though there's actually room to address some stuff that is gaze influenced that doesn't exactly follow the formula. Flowchart's Cumulus Mood Twang is one of the best things to follow in the wake of Loveless that captures, indeed, mood without simply trying to recreate. Meanwhile, the good Spencer Chow and Job de Wit pointed out to me a slew of recent techno efforts from Europe which also reflect that interest -- M83 was enjoyable enough, but I liked the Ulrich Strauss (I think that's his last name?) effort more. Good to see Rob mentioning the Charlottes -- when it comes to earlier bands, Closedown out here in California created a lovely album, Nearfield, that while very gaze/Cure influenced was remixed in studio to try and emphasize a more zoned out New Age approach at the behest of their label, Silent. So while flawed, it's still worth a listen.

Someone else has GOT to remember this.

I can't do links so... http://www.evo.org/html/group/lillies.html

http://www.live365.com/stations/glove7?play

(God, I am pathetic that I remember these sorts of things)

Another great band often overlooked is Half-String from Arizona. They put out several discs on IPR. A Fascination With Heights is the strongest in my book, with "Momentum" being my favorite amongst a strong set of songs.

Boston act the Curtain Society were on Bedazzled, their second disc Life Is Long Still is a bargain bin staple and worth the small change for the opener "Mouthwithout" ... perhaps one of my favorite opening riffs of a shoegaze song ever.

Another not mentioned is Alison's Dress (their comp was on Burnt Toast, "Torn is my fave).

I have a shoegaze CD-R I made for myself, if anyone wants a copy just drop me a note. Contains all the above and Ropers, All Natural Lemon & Lime Flavors, An April March, Revolver, Belltower and others mentioned above.

How 'bout the first two Straitjacket Fits records, if we're looking to Flying Nun type stuff? The first one especially is great...

You mean Alison's Halo. Since we're out here, Love Spirals Downwards' second album is a 'gazing classic in my book, it's called Ardor.

The Secret Shine compilation CD should be out soon, you won't go wrong with that.

Sugar Plant's most shoegazing album is probably Trance/Mellow, somewhere close to Slowdive's Souvlaki. Their first two albums are more in the Galaxie 500 vein... After After Hours is classic.

double recommendation for Swervedriver's first album.

I would also put in a small shout for Verve's early singles, Gravity Grave, She's a Superstar and All In the Mind. In fact, the whole of the Storm in Heaven album was the tail end of shoegazing-type music for me, and reminds me what a beautiful band they were before they went shit. Although they weren't really shoegazers per se, it fitted in with what I was listening to at the time.

Two of the bigger local labels were Mind Expansion Records & Burnt Hair Records- some of the local acts included Fuxa, Windy & Carl (who run a nice indie record shop in Dearborn - Stormy Records), Miss Bliss, Tomorrowland (more ambient/idm, but in the same local scene), His Name is Alive, Auburn Lull, & Transient Waves (outta Philly but w/ ties to the Michigan scene).

Other related stuff was coming out around the US as well from the likes of Darla Records & Kranky Records, and groups like Hopewell (members of Mercury Rev), Jessamine, Bowery Electric, etc, etc..

bona-fide classic, absolutely! i never tire of this wonderful record, which recreates dreamlike strolls in rainy cities like few others have done. their later garage-mod output is...interesting, but i never listen to it much. are half-string or curtain society anything like toulouse?

I wouldn't have automatically thought of Levitation as shoegazers either, but someone else did upthread (I wouldn't describe them as also-rans either).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMOxlsKu3Ak

A lot of gems on the Eastern European Shoegaze channel, like Bizarre from Estonia:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIT-omWhX7Q

This instant-classic from the Netherlands I heard for the first time last week:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp20s51w0Cs

^ The Nightblooms - Never Dream At All

Same song, more noise. Take your pick:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcpdIFZgAz8

Secret Shine - Toward the Sky:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om-KCC4GRyQ

I love both versions of Never Dream At All, long time fan of the Nightblooms

Maybe more dreamy than shoey, but anilore (Hudson valley/Brooklyn) got back together, reissued their 90s record, and put out 2 new things that keep the original flames alive w much fancier pedal boards

https://anilore.bandcamp.com/album/still-awake

ArchCarrier - I discovered Bizarre's Beautica on a shoegaze forum and I was very fond of it at the time, nice to see it's been reissued but still no CD

Anilore sounds good, new to me

Yes, same here!

On the Secret Shine tip, I've been really loving Dreamscape this week:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zNabzf8POw

Truly a very lost classic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0cffRUsuxg

I don't think Polar made anything quite as good as Con Dolore's This Sad Movie (I still consider both Polar albums very great) but this is one of my favorite Polar songs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEYL28yFgtE

I could swear the singer had another band going after with tracks on Myspace, she was fantastic

The new Pencey Sloe album strikes me as a future lost shoegaze classic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLv0P5dKClA

Okay so wayyyyy back on this thread a few of us were talking about Australia's Gaslight Radio, who had shoegaze in their makeup if not totally that. They've recently put up a best of on Spotify and a slightly older one on Bandcamp -- worth checking out:

https://gaslightradio.bandcamp.com/album/best-of-gaslight-radio-1996-2006

https://open.spotify.com/album/13LPSQCsi5BNXoCQhMFASl

Difference Engine quietly released their shelved 1994 album Flex Lavender on streaming services last year, with no accompanying info and no mention of a forthcoming physical release 🤔. it's less Disco Inferno and more Stereolab (at least on the Margie-sung tracks) than Breadmaker) and veers into trip-hop-gaze on the last track. imo the first six tracks + the intro of 'Sky Hutch' would have made for one of the best EPs of the era. it gets a little more pedestrian after that but it's solid enough throughout

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osSfzmpyEoI

listened to alison’s halo — eyedazzler last week an had a revelation I haven’t had since the pre-spotify days. why is no one talking about this band?? incredible record

Yeah, "Snowbleed" is incredible

Indeed! I'm delighted they're touring -- seeing them in a month here in SF! They've been working on a new EP for literal years now -- supported the Kickstarter pre-pandemic -- but seeing them live at last is what I'm especially here for.

oh hi thread, this is an early 90's thing that just got released:

https://transpacific-us.bandcamp.com/album/transpacific

Early 2000s surely, based on the liner notes.

And hey, ex-ILXor donut bitch just now reminded me those guys had a track on the very great Hall of Mirrors comp in the mid-2000s -- the only release of theirs at the time, I think!

ah OK, I was mixing it up with those guys' earlier band, Dose

Hey I recorded at Avast! (Braggin)

since they don’t have a thread (and my post might have been the first mention on this board?), just want to say “eyedazzler” from alison’s halo is still in rotation for me. “snowbleed” -> “torn” is such a 1-2 punch

I was lucky enough to see them the other week and lemme tell ya, that was worth the thirty-year plus wait! Great band.

I saw them a few times the first time around and I love that they're seemingly bigger now.

Really sucks that the Con Dolore/Polar members didn't seem to do much more afterwards, Kristy Moss in particular, one of my favorite singers in the genre, I can't remember the name of her band on Myspace but I doubt there were any actual releases

Hey all 90s shoegaze heads, give this one a listen!!

https://beatriceblinded.bandcamp.com/album/stars-for-our-ceiling

Existing outside of definition in an indefinable time, beatrice blinded was an independent band in Ithaca, New York for a few years in the early '90s. Sequestered to a degree in the perpetually misty melancholy of pre-Internet, college town life, this was the sound of young creative energy just barely aware of itself. There are muddled flashes of influence from the shoegaze and depressive singer/songwriter movements happening around the same time, but the end result is unrecognizable from any direct reference point, unspoiled by any ambition beyond simply trying to get the words out. --Fred Thomas

Long-obscured recordings from early '90s Upstate NY shoegaze-adjacent, emotionally grappling quintet- Akin to the lost sounds of Ozean, Moose, Ride's transitional experiments, Velocity Girl & lilys.

THIS BETTER BE GOOD. (I'm sure it's good.)

Uh oh, now I'm biting my nails waiting for the official Ned take

sounds like Lorelei!

Oh definitely! I should have thought of that, that's totally otm.

Speaking of - a couple months ago I finally found a copy of The Bitter Air 7", that's been on my want list for 15 years.

oh! I have that... I just put on the Asleep EP, so good

so good! The (original) LP is typically slept on a bit, it's not as good as those singles but I love it.

Also does anyone have:

Tom Is My Sugar - Tesserae

...digitally? I want to hear it so bad...

revive sounds like the slow Velocity Girl songs. not bad, but... not my thing.

Evan:

https://music.cliggo.com/artist/Tom_Is_My_Sugar/album/5839029-Tesserae

I feel like I’m street-teaming this 30-yr-old record this week (apologies) – but revisiting the Air Miami album via its recent reissue, I was struck by the super-cool, shoegaze-adjacent groove of Definitely Beachy… it sounds even better to me now than it did back in the day!

Thanks Steve!

Though it looks like that website is sourcing youtube videos of which there are only a smattering of songs.

Also I will mention only two of the four Beatrice Blinded songs are slow, but to each their own regardless!

all out of nails at this point

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQhi4f7D1fM

Amusement Parks on Fire - Our Goal to Realize

Impatiently curious for the Ned take on Beatrice Blinded.

The only two truly LOST shoegaze classics I can think of at the moment, well of course Evan posted it upthread: Study Of the Lifeless

But the other is a fairly obscure one from Estonia which had quite a scene 18-20 years ago:

The Chance - The Way Your Mind Looks Through
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBIj4OTld0c

Ned, what was the volume level at the alison’s halo show like?

Nicely loud. :-D

ha. seeing them in boston next week. just wondering if it’s a facemelting MBV situation and I need to bring earplugs

always bring earplugs!