-=- SHGZ -=- * Shoegaze * Indie * Post-Rock * Grunge * Dream Pop * Psych-Rock * Ethereal * ARTIST..: A Ritual Sea ALBUM...: A Ritual Sea GENRE...: Indie STYLE...: Chillwave, Dream Pop, Shoegaze, Coldwave, Darkwave STYLE...: Dreamwave, Goth, Indie Rock, Psychedelic, Psychfolk YEAR....: 2021 LABEL...: Icy Cold COUNTRY.: Ireland PLACE...: Dublin ENCODER.: LAME 3.100 -V0 BITRATE.: 258 kbps avg QUALITY.: 44.1kHz / Joint Stereo SOURCE..: CD TRACKS..: 10 SIZE....: 69.58 MB URL..: http://www.facebook.com/ARitualSea/ - TRACKLIST 1 Radiate 3:49 2 Seasons (Like You) 3:30 3 Desire Lines 3:25 4 Serpentine 3:17 5 Because You Hate To Care About 3:06 6 Prisms 2:41 7 Saving Grace 2:49 8 Violet 5:26 9 Hit A Lie 4:30 10 Silver Morning 4:58 Total Playtime: 37:31 "A masterclass in sonic cathedral building" - Hot Press Magazine "Dazed and beautifully disembodied" - The Thin Air Blog A Ritual Sea's self-titled debut album delivers a beautiful wash of melancholic synth dreamwave, reverb-soaked vocals and layers of shimmering shoegaze guitars. The band stems from couple Florian Chombart and Donna McCabe's relationship, with ten tracks circling around the theme of fear...fear of losing something, the person you love, a sense of self, your self-control, your sense of security. The album is inspired by the visually arresting micro explorations of relationships by filmmakers such as Andrei Tarkovsky, Robert Altman and Ingmar Bergman. It will be released on 24th September 2021 on post-punk label Icy Cold Records. * If there ever were an album to calmly battle the oddly negative connotations surrounding the word 'comfort', it would be A Ritual Sea. The debut full length by Dublin gazers A Ritual Sea is top tier dreamy comfort listening: it's pleasant, intimate, and entirely coherent. Finding itself at the intersection of shoegaze and dream pop, the band expertly draws from the catchiness of indie pop and the lush atmospheres of ethereal wave - one of the most criminally overlooked genres of the early 2000's. The result is a crystal clear cocktail, entirely intoxicating in its inviting familiarity. True to its familiarity, A Ritual Sea's beauty can be distilled to the expected individual elements: 'Serpentine's bouncily distorted melodies; 'Violet's heavenly twinkles; Donna McCabe's lightly angelic vocals all throughout the album. Yet, it's A Ritual Sea's ability to combine and intertwine all these inherently gorgeous aspects that makes the full package shine. 'Radiate' complements its shimmering guitars with simplistically effective drums, trading the gothic-tinged verses for a huge, entrancing chorus. Closing cut 'Silver Morning' can only be described as a shoegaze hymn, leaving enough space in between its croons and whispers to fill any cathedral within reach. It's a unique moment where the band go all the way: occasionally, it feels like songs could have opted for more intensity and expanded upon themselves. Yet, this should mostly be taken as a suggestion for future projects: simply put, A Ritual Sea is a wonderfully comfortable debut album that presents a world of opportunities for the Dreamy Dubliners. * Shoegaze, dream pop, dreamwave, neo-psychedelia, ethereal rock: Call it what you will, but this dormant early '90s genre never really went away. Earlier this year, the eventual arrival of My Bloody Valentine's (MBV) back catalogue seemed to generate even more publicity than their reunion in 2008, despite a lack of new material. The term has also mutated and expanded into numerous splinter genres - "nu gaze" (DIIV), "blackgaze" (Alcest, Deafheaven). Basically, if the guitars sound a bit weird, drop a shoegaze reference or MBV comparison or two. French-Irish quintet A Ritual Sea formed in 2016. They've been building up a head of hazy steam at Other Voices and supporting Jane Weaver. Lead vocals alternate between Florian Chombart and Donna McCabe, while Chombart and Nina Ruminska create shimmering layers of spectral guitars, reminiscent of the overused "cathedrals of sound" tag that followed around bands such as Slowdive. Because You Hate to Care About stands out as one of their finest and catchiest numbers, but there's plenty to get lost in and admire on this promising eponymous debut. Sometimes they set the amps to 11 on noisy cuts such as Violet, but they also know when to pare it back and lure the listener into a slow and dreamy netherworld. A Ritual Sea sold out in Whelan's in early 2020, so it will be interesting to see how they'll progress live. Music this good deserves to be witnessed at a very loud volume. -=- SHGZ -=- -=-=-==-=-=- Shoegaze is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the late 80s. The genre is very difficult to define, and it is even more difficult to evaluate music within it. Generally, the genre is characterized by its shimmering vocals, reverberating guitars, and textural distortion that create a tranquil, opaque feeling. ---==--==---