speed of dark

This is going to be kind of an abbreviated Time Travel Tuesday. I am entertaining He Might Be Giant this week, and Indie Mom's computer died a horrible, lingering death. All will be better soon.

I think that perhaps my first introduction to shoegaze was with the Brit group Chapterhouse. I first heard "Breather" and "April" from Whirlpool (1991). Indie Mom was listening to house, rave, and techno at the time, and this was my version of those sounds. The curled-up cat on the front didn't hurt either.

I didn't know anything about the band, the Internet not being the fingertip source of all info at that time. Apparently, the original version of Blood Music, which followed Whirlpool in 1993, was withdrawn due to a lawsuit apparently over a sample from the movie Star Wars. There is a description of the re-released version, Pentamorous Metamorphosis (1998).

All I knew was that I loved these swirling, dreamy, sprawling songs infused with techno beats. They somehow manage to be both soothing and energizing at the same time. "Breather" and "Pearl" are excellent examples of that.

When I got Blood Music, I was especially hooked on the combination of "Everytime" and "Deli," which is why I've posted those tracks. Play them together so that "Deli" begins right after "Everytime." The bright bouncy "Everytime" slows, cools, and sinks into the darker "Deli" without missing a beat. The sparse, spoken lyrics of "Deli" seem to be attempting to explain the essences of beauty and ugliness, then come to the conclusion that they are two sides of the same thing.

My version of Whirlpool contains two unnamed tracks that may be among seven bonus tracks that were included (with names) in a later re-release of that album. Track 11 may not be one of those either, because it is longer than any of those tracks. If anyone knows the true name of Track 11, let me know.

From Whirlpool (1991)
Breather
Pearl
Track 11

From Blood Music (1993)
We Are the Beautiful
Everytime
Deli

Founding member Andrew Sherriff (guitar, vocals) went on to form Bio.com (Bionic), but he otherwise seems to have been keeping a low profile Internet-wise. Guitarist Simon Rowe is a member of Mojave 3. Stephen Patman (guitar, vocals) has engineered and mixed tracks for Ben Darvill/Son Of Dave. Other members may be connected with experimental electronica band Tunng or Cuba, but I could not verify this.

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