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(Translated from my original Italian text by DommeDamian)
Slowdive
were one of the most representative groups of the
British "shoegaze" movement of the 1990s. Their psychedelic rock took
the intuitions of
My Bloody Valentine
and
Cocteau Twins
to
extreme levels: of the former the pulsating bass, the funereal drums, the
guitars tuned to celestial reverberations, whispers that hover in impalpable
rings, and of the others the suggestion of warbling harmonies.
The group, formed in 1990 on the ashes of the Pumpkin Fairies (1989), relied on the
vocal skills of Neil Halstead and Rachel Goswell,
both very young, and on the guitar trio composed by the two with Christian
Savill.
The EPs
Slowdive (November 1990), with the celestial title-track and
the long Avalyn,
Morningrise
(February 1991), with the title-track and She
Calls, and Holding Our Breath
(June 1991), with the catchy Catch The Breeze and the atmospheric
Albatross, were notable for a trance set on subtle fluctuations
of mood. It was neither the melodies nor the guitar distortions that drove the
sound, because the sound was an abstract entity that unfolded little by little.
The EPs would be collected on theBlue Day compilation (Creation, 1992).
The debut album Just For A Day (Creation, 1991) testifies to an early and spectacular maturity. Few bands have been able to produce music so psychological and so harmonious. The hypnotic whisperings of the record glide weightlessly on very smooth surfaces, their diaphanous profiles bounce against distorting mirrors, their velvety refrains slip into the meshes of the cosmos.
The Sadman is perhaps the most extraterrestrial and surreal piece, and the vocal polyphony of the group touches a zenith of pure delirium in the aforementioned Catch The Breeze
(in particular in its dreamy tail).
Primal
is a mini-concert in a crescendo of echoes and reverberations, which blends the
sweetness and the brutality of a heroin overdose.
Chromatic abstraction meets pure electronic
avant-garde in the instrumental Erik's
Song.
Celia's Dream excels in that
sense of abandonment in the spirals of hypnotic cadences. It is enough to
scroll through the titles to realize that their universe is packed with dreams,
breezes, waves, air. Guitars, keyboards and percussion are fused in homogeneous
flows of fairy sound, always scanned in a solemn way, as on the threshold of
Paradise. The traditional format of the
rock song resurfaces for a few seconds from the galactic mists in
Ballad of Sister Sue and
Waves. The martial melody (reminiscent
of the "Crimson King") of Spanish
Air represents better than any other the average tone of the disc.
Thus, psychedelia becomes
mystical "symphonism". Slowdive's songs are the
"sanctus" of psychedelic rock. This record stands as one of
the most daring achievements of British rock ever.
It is no coincidence that Souvlaki (Creation, 1993 - SBK, 1994) attracted the attention of
Brian Eno,
who played on a couple of songs: their rock
permanently breathes an ambient beauty. Their songs seem more and more
anthemic and trance-y, sung in a low voice by Halstead, with
the very faint countermelody of Goswell (or vice versa), and performed on tiptoe by an ensemble that seems on the verge of fainting
at any moment. Tired cadences, hypnotic velvety spirals of electronics and the
most affectional warbling populate the magical lands of
Machine Gun and Altogether.
The climax of languor and voluptuousness is Alison, wrapped in spirals of heavenly
choirs and studded with a very soft jingle-jangle, as if Sonny and Cher had
become two cherubs and sang from a cloud in heaven. The more you go on and the
more the sound disappears, up to the minimal extremes, almost to the harmonic
void, of Dagger (which Halstead hums
accompanied by the guitar alone) and Country Rain (which Goswell
whispers on warm Hawaiian chords). When The Sun Hits is the song that comes closest to contemporary
shoegazer conventions.
The instrumental
reserves a minimum of action (and emotion) due to a surreal
reggae rhythm and noise, at the crossroads between psychedelic and industrial music.
The two instrumental "apocryphals" published as a bonus
of the record (Good Day Sunshine and
Missing You), are almost new age
watercolors that obtain the same results as the songs but without resorting to
the human voice.
The 5EP boasts In Mind and Country Rain.
Pygmalion (Creation, 1995) could not be more unusual in the season of 1990s Brit-pop.
De facto, it is a solo album by Neil Halstead who gives vent to his environmental lusts. Musically, it abandons much of Slowdive's trademark sound in favor of
a minimal ambient post-rock style,
halfway between
Talk Talk
and Seefeel.
The ten-minute Rutti is a quasi-mystical trance a` la Popol Vuh's Hosianna Mantra that blossoms into languid dream-pop).
Crazy for You is six minutes of stoned echoes worthy of David Crosby's first album.
The celestial chant of Miranda comes from a space station orbiting Alpha Centauri, and, persevering in that form, Slowdive attains
a free-form hyper-psychedelic psalm such as Trellisaze.
We briefly travel to Renaissance-era England with the elegant madrigal Visions of La, and the classic Slowdive's classic sound is still lingering in the tender vortex of Blue Skied An' Clear, but this album thrives in a different universe.
A constant guitar ticking hints at the passing of time while summoning a deeply
existential kind of hypnosis.
The band was by then dead.
(Original text by Piero Scaruffi)
(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)
After Slowdive disbanded, Halstead and Goswell launched Mojave 3.
Immune from guitar distortions,
Ask Me Tomorrow (4AD, 1996) has a gently, dreamy, melancholic folk tone,
akin to the Cowboy Junkies,
even if the Slowdive touch is easily recognizable
(a few of the songs are brainchildren of Dagger and Miranda) and
lead-off ballad Love Songs On The Radio was clearly inspired by
Mazzy Star's Fade Into You.
A country twang accompanies Goswell's languid and suave meditation
Tomorrow's Taken.
Guitar, piano and soft drumming accent the evanescent melody of
Sarah.
Melodies are always romantically engaging, although never sumptuous or
emphatic. Quite the contrary:
the duets Candle Song 3 and
Where Is The Love
belong with the tender lullabies of Leonard Cohen;
and You're Beautiful is a serenade sung with the quiet tone
(and sparse arrangement) of early Donovan.
The band relaxes a little too much on
Out Of Tune (4AD, 1998), a subdued collection that harks back
to the late 1960s country and folk revivals and that relates even too
explicitly to the icons of that time:
Gram Parson (Give What You Take, Baby's Coming Home),
Band (Keep It All Hid, Caught Beneath Your Heel),
Nick Drake (All Your Tears, Yer Feet),
and, last but not least,
Bob Dylan, who inspires the two singles
(Who Do You Love, Some Kinda Angel).
While not as accomplished as the debut album, and still prone to fainting at
every note like the sophomore album, Excuses For Travellers (4AD, 2000)
clarifies Mojave 3's identity, as modern singer-songwriter's music that harks
back to the golden age of country-rock and folk-rock but adds a metaphysical
dimension. Surprisingly, little is left of their psychedelic roots.
The six-minute ode In Love With A View recalls the magic atmosphere of
Bob Dylan's Blonde On Blonde, and
She Broke You So Softly has the gentle, pure, loving quality of
the first Donovan album.
The seven-minute My Life In Art is all about whispering emotions to
a bird on a wire, inspired by Leonard Cohen and Tim Buckley.
The charming singalongs of When You're Drifting and
Prayer For The Paranoid are concentrates of
gentle gestures that bridge earth and heavens.
Mojave 3 have achieved a classical style, that allows them to stretch the format
of their ballads without renouncing a relatively simply format.
The spiritual undercurrent of much of the collection comes to light when
trumpet and organ elevate Got My Sunshine to a moving gospel hymn full of
hope and humility.
These are folk and country ballads that a lacerating pain has emptied of all
energy and filled with a zen-like acceptance of the mystery of life.
These are disciples of Gram Parsons, not of shoegazers.
On the other hand, the lively Return To Sender,
the catchy and relaxed Krazy Kat,
the modern arrangements of Bringin' Me Home
(a touch of electronic, a danceable beat, a female voice),
the power-pop of Anyday Will be Fine (reminiscent of Luna)
could mark the beginning of a new career (or several new careers).
Neil Halstead's first solo album, Sleeping On Roads (4AD, 2001), sounded
like an electronic version of Paul Simon and Bob Dylan. A couple of atmospheric
tunes (Two Stones In My Pocket, See You On Rooftops) stand out
among several plain, humorless dirges.
Slowdive guitarist Christian Savill and Sean Hewson formed the project
Monster Movie, that recorded the album
Last Night Something Happened (Clairecords, 2002). The duo updates
dream-pop to slo-core and ambient music. A few of the songs
(4th and Pine, Waiting Shortwave, Home) are
worth the best of the genre, and the
instrumental pieces (First Trip to the City, Star City)
exhude metaphysical dejection.
Monster Movie then released
To the Moon (2004),
All Lost (2006) and
Everyone Is a Ghost (2010).
Spoon and Rafter (Matador, 2003), Mojave 3's fourth album, fails to
introduce new elements, but succeeds in extending the ethereal vision of
the musicians.
The nine-minute Bluebird Of Happiness, the brooding Between the Bars and the graceful folk-pop lullabies Tinkers Blues and She's All Up Above show how Halstead's dexterity at just about any mood and form.
Rachel Goswell's first solo album, Waves Are Universal (4AD, 2004),
is a graceful exercise in recreating the mood of early
Cocteau Twins and, yes, Slowdive.
Mojave 3's Puzzles Like You (4AD, 2006) was their most extroverted
work yet, as close as Halstead ever got to writing bouncy pop ditties, as if
he had decided to release a tribute album to the 1960s
(Truck Driving Man, Big Star Baby).
Neil Halstead's second solo album, Oh! Mighty Engine (2008) was an
acoustic bedroom exercise.
Slowdive's drummer Simon Scott debuted solo with the ethereal
Navigare (Miasmah, 2009) and
the four-song EP Traba (Immune, 2010). Scott instead opted for
brainy constructions and a noir-jazz atmosphere on
Bunny (Miasmah, 2011).
After 22 years, Slowdive returned with
Slowdive (2017), opening with
the catchy, ethereal and sensual Slomo and closing with
the lugubrious ballad Falling Ashes,
while Monster Movie returned after seven years with Keep the Voices Distant (2017).
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