They used to stare at the toes of their shoes, wrapping their music in dense electric guitar feedback and drowning their vocals in it. Slowdive rose to fame in the early 1990s as one of the leading bands of the scene that British journalists initially derisively called shoegaze.
The musicians were staring at their shoes, because underneath they had a mess of pedals, effects and boxes, which they used to distort the sound. At the same time, as shy teenagers, they avoided looking into the audience, and their music was about both abstract and intense teenage feelings.
Today, these four fifty-somethings – led by singer Rachel Goswell and guitarist Neil Halstead – can name these emotions. Last year’s record proves it Everything Is Alive, with which they crossed their shadow from the “90s”. This Sunday, January 28, Slowdive will present it at the Archa+ venue in Prague, known until now under the name Archa Theatre.
As if they first had to experience something and gain distance with age. They stare at their shoes a lot less, face the audience, and the introverted screen that the guitar noise provided them is gone. As it shows record from last year’s Glastonbury festival, Neil Halstead and Rachel Goswell sometimes even look into the audience.
The typical shoegaze shyness may also have come from the fact that at such a tender age they did not know how to communicate with each other: about romantic relationships or between band members. They were around fifteen years old when they started rehearsing together; not even twenty when they signed Alan McGee from the famous Creation Records label, putting them in the catalog alongside the likes of My Bloody Valentine or Primal Scream; and only at twenty-five they broke up.
Slowdive found themselves on a rollercoaster driven by the British music press. Critics had incredible power compared to today, determining what was listened to, how and when.
In 1993, Slowdive performed at the Prague club Bunkr, in 2016 they came to Colors of Ostrava. Pictured is Rachel Goswell. | Photo: Profimedia.cz
The band was at its peak after the release of their debut album Just for a Day in 1991, which was praised by Melody Maker and NME magazines. When she published her most famous album, Souvlaki, two years later, the same journalists were already making fun of her.
There was a certain social dimension to it, albeit one that fell on its head: middle-class critics mocked groups like Slowdive or Chapterhouse for coming from good families and attending prestigious schools. In addition, moods and styles were changing – Nirvana started a massive American wave with the Nevermind album grunge and Warp Publishing published ambient compilation Artificial Intelligence. This changed the way electronic music was listened to: it no longer had to be blasted from large sound systems. It evolved from collective euphoria into a more introverted headphone form.
Shoegaze was in many ways an overlapping genre: he used electric guitars in a completely different way than rockers, compared to whom he dissolved riffs into surfaces and textures. Ambient and electronics gave shoegaze – specifically to British Seefeel or Prague’s Ecstasy of St. Theresa, the record label at the time Free D in London – tools and technology to take this idea even further. In addition, dance remixes of guitar records became fashionable and experiments were carried out.
Out of these centrifugal forces came Slowdive’s second album, Souvlaki, which was released in November 1993 and celebrated its 30th anniversary less than three months ago.
At that time, Neil Halstead was listening to electronics, mainly producer Aphex Twin, and he invited the inventor of ambient Brian Eno to record. His influence can be heard above all in the ethereal composition Souvlaki Space Stationrhythmically also inspired by oak.
The ethereal track Souvlaki Space Station from the album Slowdive released in 1993. | Video: Creation Records
Slowdive seemed to break free and start experimenting with this record. Music critics condemned it as a “snobbery”, even though it hid charming ballads Some Velvet Morning or Here She Comes – a breakup song written somewhat in the spirit of the Velvet Underground. Halstead dedicated it to co-star Rachel Goswell, whom he dated during their heyday.
By that time, however, the mania surrounding the genre had already fully erupted britpop and the rock anthems of Oasis or Blur began to be listened to more. Singer Richey Edwards of Manic Street Preachers famously said that “Slowdive hates more than Hitler”. They became an easy target.
Neil Halstead of Slowdive. | Photo: Profimedia.cz
The following Pygmalion album was described by the press as “commercial suicide”, Alan McGee kicked them out of Creation Records and this, along with other disagreements, resulted in the breakup of Slowdive. Nevertheless, today both records are considered classics and have aged more than well.
A similar fate befell other young shoegaze bands that were not ready for fame – the members stopped communicating with each other, egos entered, they couldn’t stand it.
On one stage, the original line-up of Slowdive met only after twenty years in 2014. They toured all the important festivals, even if some performances seemed awkward. 2017’s self-titled record represented a worthy return and was one of their loudest. Only last year’s fifth album, Everything Is Alive, proves that Slowdive are capable of coming up with a sound that captures where they are today.
It’s admirable that they got it together after so many years – after all, Rachel Goswell and Neil Halstead have been friends since childhood.
News aptly praised journalist Jayson Greene in a review for Pitchfork.com. “It’s the first recording where you can hear and feel the weight of all those years (when Slowdive weren’t together). Also the shadows of all the losses that make up the contours of life around fifty,” he wrote.
Shanty, from the new album, as played by Slowdive in the studio of New York’s WFUV radio station. Photo: Profimedia.cz | Video: WFUV Public Radio
At the beginning of their careers there was a promise of eternal youth, today it’s weddings, children, divorces, graying hair. Everything Is Alive was born during a pandemic that took someone from everyone: Rachel Goswell’s mother died, drummer Simon Scott’s father.
Neil Halstead is not literal, but his lyrics tell about the passage of time and “ghosts” repeatedly appear in them. But there is also light and hope: a slow post-rock ballad Prayer Remembered he wrote three days after the birth of his son. Traces of guitar feedback can be heard especially in the opening composition Shantywhere they intertwine with a synthesizer line and krautrock rhythms.
Everything Is Alive is dominated by dreamy electronics, overall the album is softer and more conciliatory; more dreampop than shoegaze.
“I’d say we’re enjoying it more today. On the personal side, the anger and disrespect around Souvlaki and Pygmalion is gone. We’re enjoying being together,” she said Rachel Goswell of The Quietus. The older they get, the more they notice the young people in the audience. “I kind of feel like their mother,” she adds.
Numbers and algorithms also speak for Slowdive’s young audience from generation Z: with the record Souvlaki, they became an unlikely hit on the social network TikTok, which lived on shoegaze last year. The #slowdive hashtag alone now has 276.4 million followers there. In Prague, a band will be in front of the audience, whose romantic gentle noise safely unites generations.
Concert
Slowdive
(Organized by the Charmenko CZ agency)
Archa+, Prague, January 28.
2024-01-23 11:01:11
#staring #toes #shoes #Slowdive #transcended #shadow #90s #shoegaze #genre #Currently.cz
