-=- SHGZ -=- * Shoegaze * Indie * Post-Rock * Grunge * Dream Pop * Psych-Rock * Ethereal * ARTIST..: VA ALBUM...: Splashed With Many A Speck GENRE...: Indie STYLE...: Shoegaze YEAR....: 1997 LABEL...: Dewdrops ENCODER.: LAME 3.100 -V0 BITRATE.: 258 kbps avg QUALITY.: 44.1kHz / Joint Stereo SOURCE..: CD TRACKS..: 29 SIZE....: 274.11 MB URL..: http://www.discogs.com/Various-Splashed-With-Many-A-Speck/release/597128 - TRACKLIST Disc 1 ------ 1 Knife Felt Heart - Milieu 4:45 2 Starblind - Slow As Smoke 3:25 3 The Curtain Society - Swing/Evanston 4:34 4 Cocteau Twins - Touch Upon Touch 4:09 5 Lanterna - Passage 5:53 6 Faith And Disease - Fortune His Sleep 5:50 III 7 Orange - Painted Tongue 2:37 8 Chicklet - Shellac 3:24 9 Luminous Orange - Garden Of Stones 4:17 10 Venus Swirls - Allison 5:10 11 Bethany Curve - Serene & Smiling 5:05 12 The Sunflower Conspiracy - Belle 6:52 Chasse 13 Daniel Figgis - Timothy Cream's Crown 11:07 Of Wines 14 The Von Trapps - Out In A Boat 6:18 Disc 2 ------ 1 deardarkhead - Sleep 7:40 2 Orange - Sweet Briar 5:04 3 Half String - Eyesick 6:11 4 Love Spirals Downwards - Delta 4:02 5 Super 31 - Me In Time 3:10 6 Six String Malfunction - For Static 4:17 7 avenue - Oceanliner 4:38 8 lovesliescrushing - Lips To Kiss 1:46 9 Alison's Halo - Leech 5:49 10 Heavenside - Thoughtforms 3:20 11 Scenic - When The Time Comes 3:38 12 Starlight Conspiracy - The Early Hours 4:29 13 The FloatingHouse - Train 4:35 14 Closedown - Bumblebee 7:55 15 The Sensualists - Blue Girl 7:18 Total Playtime: 147:18 It's true that America never produced a dream pop band as great as the early-'90s British works of My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Lush, Slowdive, Pale Saints, the Boo Radleys, Swervedriver, Chapterhouse, Moose, Catherine Wheel, Kitchens of Distinction, Revolver, and others, whose glorious fusing of the Velvet Underground, Joy Division, Cocteau Twins, Dinosaur Jr., the Jesus and Mary Chain, and the House of Love with '60s psychedelia created the most incredible and lasting body of music of the '90s. The new sounds needed to be state-of-the-art recorded to get the most out of the extreme guitar effects, and Americans lacked the financing these Brit-signed acts used routinely. U.S. recordings were too cheap! But that doesn't mean the States didn't produce a plethora of fine dreamy bands, and Splashed bravely tries to collect them all, with 29 acts in 150 minutes. There are some stars missing (such as For Against, Difference Engine, Mistle Thrush, Jupiter Sun, Dart, the young Drop Nineteens, some Bedazzled label outfits, and half a dozen San Francisco bands that were excellent -- how 'bout a second volume?), but who cares when the leading lights of the "beautiful noise" scene all appear with unreleased tracks? This is a plateful! Even the U.K. grandmas, the Cocteau Twins, give Splashed their exquisite stamp with one of their final tracks, the sensuous "Touch Upon Touch," previously available only on the Brit mag Volume's sampler 17. Of course, with so much weighty music, there are places where Splashed drags badly or grows too emulative or insular, and some more memorable songwriting (on par with the Brits) could help. But overall, this is a prime assemblage of artists who never went for the big label bucks, but instead followed the pretty, expansive sounds in their heads. -=- SHGZ -=- P.S. ** Thanks *** *** BCC FNT IPC SSR *** *** For Knowing Where The Music Is At *** *** Props to CaHeSo, awesome Asian Indie/Shoegaze *** *** And to FANG/HOUND for supporting all the Indie lovers out there *** --===-- ********************* * NuHS we miss you! * *********************