Slowdive – Pygmalion
By Mark Dohmann
| Label: | Creation Records – crelp 168, Creation Records – CRELP 168 |
|---|---|
| Format: | Vinyl, LP, Album |
| Country: | UK |
| Released: | 1995 |
| Genre: | Electronic, Rock |
| Style: | Dream Pop, Shoegaze, Ambient, Post Rock |
Dreaming of Anti-Showmanship
The 1960’s and 1970’s rock era was full of “rock gods”. Robert Plant and Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin would perhaps be familiar to a lot of us. The Cult’s Ian Astbury is often referred to as one of the last of the great “front men” having started in the early 1980’s.
In the meantime punk and post punk bands were contrasting this style often with female lead singers. Siouxsie and the Banshees and band member Robert Smith (later of The Cure) were striking out in different directions classed as Goth.
Early Shoegazer bands like Cocteau Twins influenced Robert Smith of The Cure. The Missing Link (yes that record shop in Melbourne) in all of this is probably Birthday Party’s Nick Cave, Roland S Howard and Mick Harvey’s early sounds who were in UK and Europe around that time setting new directions.
My personal theory is that the best British music happens when Britain is in the depths of economic turmoil. Kids with little hope for prosperity sitting in bedrooms playing cheap instruments have given us Depeche Mode, Echo and the Bunnymen and Joy Division / New Order, and a huge number of amazing bands to influence several generations. Birthday Party and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds were foreigners but certainly influential.
The term shoegazing was coined by the British music press to describe the stage presence of a wave of neo-psychedelic groups who stood still during live performances in a detached, introspective, non-confrontational state with their heads down. This was because the heavy use of effects pedals meant the performers were often looking down at the readouts on their pedals during concerts.
Bands which are identified as Shoegazers include Cocteau Twins, The Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Slowdive, Chapterhouse, Swervedriver, Lush, Curve, Pale Saints, Seefeel, AR Kane and Medicine. To find out about the bands in the scene you could spend a lifetime exploring the sounds and influences found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_shoegazing_musicians.
Shoegazing (or shoegaze, initially known as “dream pop”) is a subgenre of indie and alternative rock that emerged in the United Kingdom in the late 1980s. It is characterized by its ethereal-sounding mixture of obscured vocals, guitar distortion and effects, feedback, and overwhelming volume.
How loud? Well you need to wear industrial scale hearing protection to listen to Shoegaze bands live. I recently attended a few concerts in Melbourne at the Forum. British bands Ride, Slowdive, and USA band Beach House. I have a custom set of Etymotics which allow me to hear the band without losing too much sonic quality but go home with no ear ringing. Even with earplugs bands like Slowdive and Beachhouse will give you an ultrasonic massage.
Wall-of-sound production was commonplace. Melody Maker preferred calling it “The Scene That Celebrates Itself”, referring to the habit that the bands had of attending gigs of other shoegazing bands, often in Camden, and often playing in each other’s bands. This circular nature of watching and listening to each other’s work and collaboration on albums was the antithesis of the “rock gods”. The bands were more interested in their art (of navel gazing).
Ride’s singer Mark Gardener had another take on his group’s static presentation: “We didn’t want to use the stage as a platform for ego… We presented ourselves as normal people, as a band who wanted their fans to think they could do that too.”
Slowdive favoured a polite narcotic haze, soothing rather than battering the brain into submission. 1995’s Pygmalion was their least commercially successful album – partially due to a fierce press backlash against the band, but mainly because label Creation was far more focussed on new signings Oasis.
In one interview Slowdive’s Simon Scott found the term “The Scene That Celebrates Itself” relevant: “I always thought Robert Smith, when he was in Siouxsie and the Banshees playing guitar on the 1983’s Nocturne live video, was the coolest as he just stood there and let the music flood out. That anti-showmanship was perfect so I never really understood why people began to use “shoegaze” as a negative term. I think if Slowdive didn’t stand there looking at what pedal was about to go on and off we’d have been shite. I am glad we were static and concentrated on playing well. Now it is a positive term.”
So why pick Slowdive’s Pygmalion as one to add to your music collection? Don’t let the reputation for overwhelming volume in live context put you off from what is in reality a gentle slow moving relaxed art form. It might not be your cup of post-rock modernism tea but it is keeper. It’s an album from a group that never made it big in the day but has continued to influence so many musicians and listeners.
Rachel Goswell the lead singer has an amazing voice which becomes an instrument in itself in the multiple layers of guitar sounds. Neil Halstead also sings beautifully on several tracks.
A deep thumping bass drum offers almost tribal rhythms on Crazy for You. There is dreamy ethereal nature to most of the tracks. The tracks blend into one another in a well-orchestrated sequence. Visions of LA offers a gentle latin guitar vibe to contemplate upon.
Blue Skied An’ Clear is almost jazz and fans of Talk Talk Mark Hollis will identify his influences on Slowdive (acknowledged by the band themselves in interviews). The final track All Of Us is a beautiful pensive reflection with guitar and viola and gentle vocals which can fill your room on a Sunday morning as the coffee is brewing and the newspaper beckoning for a slow read with some Baker Di Chirico freshly baked temptations wafting thru the air.
If you’re not familiar with the music of Slowdive Pygmalion try Discogs for an original vinyl copy or even the reissue.
Just go and get it!
From Anthony Camplone:
Nice one Mark. There’s also an interesting back story after this was released. Slow dive were dropped by Creation Records only a week after the release of Pygmalion because their new ambient sound was the complete opposite of the new number 1 album at the time. Oasis – What’s the Story…..
Oasis killed shoegaze and Britpop was king.
Track listing
Rutti 10:05
Crazy For You 6:01
Miranda 4:49
Trellisaze 6:22
Cello 1:42
J’s Heaven 6:47
Visions Of La 1:48
Blue Skied An’ Clear 6:54
All Of Us
Personnel
Neil Halstead – vocals, guitar, production
Rachel Goswell – vocals, guitar, production
Christian Savill – guitar, production
Nick Chaplin – bass guitar, production
Ian McCutcheon – drums, production
Additional personnel
Chris Hufford – engineering, production