Barrowland, Glasgow
4 stars
By the time My Bloody Valentine bowed out of anything resembling a career thirteen years ago, the Dublin-born quartet led by guitarist Kevin Shields had released two seminal albums that redefined guitar music, and which married gorgeous melodies to swathes of avant-garde sound-waves. The second, Loveless, had taken so long to record amid a wave of procrastination and perfectionism that the pressure is alleged to have caused bankruptcies and breakdowns in its wake. Whatever the truth regarding subsequent sessions, barely a note has been released since.
Tonight’s revisitation is like stepping into a time warp. Shields, his guitar foil Belinda Butcher, bassist Debbie Goodge and drummer Colm O'Ciosoig run through their back catalogue with impassive seriousness. The mix is muddy, burying Shields and Butcher’s vocals in sludge. The prettier melodies of Soon, described by Brian Eno as the vaguest pop music ever made, survive. As coruscating at times as this is, the only surprise is that it’s not nearly as loud as advertised.
Until, that is, they get to You Make Me Realise, on which Shields and co lurch an otherwise doleful tune into slabs of pure noise. It’s as if several jet planes had come into land at the same time while the airport was being simultaneously bulldozed and bombed. For twenty minutes. Two decades ago, in the context of an apparently shy and retiring scene, such experimentalism sounded shocking. Today, such assaults are commonplace at the raft of experimental festivals that exist now. Hearing it live, however, with all the wisdom and experience My Bloody Valentine bring to it, is no less a thrilling experience.
The Herald, July 4th 2008
ends
4 stars
By the time My Bloody Valentine bowed out of anything resembling a career thirteen years ago, the Dublin-born quartet led by guitarist Kevin Shields had released two seminal albums that redefined guitar music, and which married gorgeous melodies to swathes of avant-garde sound-waves. The second, Loveless, had taken so long to record amid a wave of procrastination and perfectionism that the pressure is alleged to have caused bankruptcies and breakdowns in its wake. Whatever the truth regarding subsequent sessions, barely a note has been released since.
Tonight’s revisitation is like stepping into a time warp. Shields, his guitar foil Belinda Butcher, bassist Debbie Goodge and drummer Colm O'Ciosoig run through their back catalogue with impassive seriousness. The mix is muddy, burying Shields and Butcher’s vocals in sludge. The prettier melodies of Soon, described by Brian Eno as the vaguest pop music ever made, survive. As coruscating at times as this is, the only surprise is that it’s not nearly as loud as advertised.
Until, that is, they get to You Make Me Realise, on which Shields and co lurch an otherwise doleful tune into slabs of pure noise. It’s as if several jet planes had come into land at the same time while the airport was being simultaneously bulldozed and bombed. For twenty minutes. Two decades ago, in the context of an apparently shy and retiring scene, such experimentalism sounded shocking. Today, such assaults are commonplace at the raft of experimental festivals that exist now. Hearing it live, however, with all the wisdom and experience My Bloody Valentine bring to it, is no less a thrilling experience.
The Herald, July 4th 2008
ends
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