Monday's Long Song

The first signs of spring are in the offing- daffodils showing their yellow heads and blossom tentatively appearing on trees. It's forecast to be a return to winter this week with snow and ice. I'm done with winter now, I need some warmth and some sunshine. 

I've posted two shoegaze/ ambient techno remixes recently, the Future Sound Of London remix of Curve last Monday and the Reload remix of Slowdive two weeks before that. Here's a third, Spooky's 1994 of Undertow by Lush. By 1994 Lush had moved on from the shimmering, FX drenched early sound to something more radio friendly. Their Hypocrite single came with this remix, a nine minute version of a song from their album Split. Lots of chopped up guitar chords, the sound of the FX pedals as much as the guitars themselves, feedback, ambient noise, a lovely looped bass part with a fragment of vocal floating on top, all underpinned by a crunchy drumbeat. 

Undertow (Spooky Remix)

Vaughan Oliver

Vaughan Oliver died yesterday aged 62. He was the man responsible for the creating the artwork that graced the sleeves of a slew of bands in the 1980s and 90s and the entire visual identity of 4AD. The selection above shows how distinctive, eye catching and beautiful his work was but also how varied. It helps that the music contained within the 12" by 12" squares above was always of the highest calibre- Lush, Pixies, This Mortal Coil, Cocteau Twins, Ultra Vivid Scene, MARRS, Colourbox, Pale Saints (and also Throwing Muses, The Breeders, AR Kane, Belly... the list goes on). From the days when buying records based on the label they were issued on was commonplace and when the artwork mattered as much as the music.

Here in 1991 are Lush performing their single Sweetness and Light at The Dome, shoegaze pop with a Manchester swing to the rhythm. Vaughan Oliver RIP.

Blind Spot

Quite a few bloggers have written about the new Lush song. It's part of a forthcoming four track e.p. out in April called Blind Spot. Out Of Control sounds pretty wonderful, shimmering guitars and breathless vocals.



In 1990 they put out a four track e.p. called Mad Love which featured a band highpoint in the song De-Luxe, recently described by Miki as being about 'having sex, outdoors. At 7 in the morning. On ecstacy.' The final song on that e.p. was this one, which has shimmering guitars and breathless vocals.

Thoughtforms

De Luxe

If I was going to make a compilation album by late 80s and early 90s indie bands singing songs about sex then this would be on it. It's not something that has occurred to me before but just recently I heard Going Down by The Stone Roses followed by De Luxe by Lush and the thought popped into my head. De Luxe is rather great really, crashing drums, shimmering, psychedelic guitars and the lovely Miki's vocals. Lush were a bit derided at the time, portrayed as bandwagon jumpers with friends in the press, ligging every night in Camden. They got a bit of flak for the photo shoot (above) too if I remember right- but some of the songs have stayed the course.

Sweetness And Light

There's something about 1990 at the minute- I don't know if it's a twenty five year rule (like the official release of parliamentary records) or that my subconscious is particularly attuned to records that came out in my twentieth year or (most likely) it's just coincidence but I came across the video for this the other night and it sounded brilliant and beautiful. Sweetness And Light was Lush's second single. I bought it on 12" when it came out (October 15th 1990) and I imagine it was Single Of The Week in NME or Melody Maker or both. It's stuffed full of lovely jangly guitars and a great little chord change, shoegaze sheen and Miki Berenyi's whispered singing- today it sounds pretty poppy. The video is a riot of 1990 psychedelic effects.

4AD #3

Three 4AD posts in a row, this time from Lush, the Camden Abba. Lush had a few good moments, although their drinking often seemed to overshadow their music in the press. Of which they got plenty, partly due to their female front two Emma and Miki. This track Sweetness And Light was one of their best known, and I think turned up selling cars at some point. They split up in 1998, after drummer Chris committed suicide, and went their seperate ways. Bassist Phil plays with The Jesus And Mary Chain, not sure about Miki and Emma- I think one of them resurfaced in a band some time ago. This version of Sweetness And Light (Orange Squash) is a My Bloody Valentine remix (which essentially means Kevin Shields), done for a film called Splendor.

Me either.

Sweetness and Light_MBV remix.mp3 - 4shared.com - online file sharing and storage - download