A mate of mine wanted me to put together a playlist of shoegazing and post-rock tunes. I have obliged (actually, I hope he has a Spotify account).
What is shoegazing and post-rock music? Basically, songs that use heavily processed and layered sounds to create a dense, euphoric sound. Shoegazing can be traced to the effects-heavy music of the Cocteau Twins and My Bloody Valentine, through the post-rock layers of Seefeel and Mogwai and on to the contemporary nugaze of Engineers and The School Of Seven Bells.
Some find the music depressing. I find the sadness uplifting; there’s so much more happiness in a minor chord. Here’s the tracklisting and a quick description of each track:
- Tracy – Mogwai: Any song that starts with a taped conversation describing a fight by band members is bound to be great
- Blown A Wish – My Bloody Valentine: Possibly the best pop song ever written
- My Own Strange Path – M83: Intense and cinematic, sounds like the score to the solar system
- Face To Face On High Places – School Of Seven Bells: Nugaze shoegaze that sounds a lot like latter-day My Bloody Valentine
- Halving The Compas – Helios: Repetitive strains that remind me of the sun rising in the morning
- Love Movement (Ulrich Schnauss Remix) – Revtone: Schanuss’ remix is like a slowed-down, cloudy Ibiza anthem
- Catch The Breeze – Slowdive: Shoegaze classic that goes epic two minutes from time
- Electric Counterpoint (Fast) – Steve Reich: Influential modern classic echoed throughout post-rock
- Davyan Cowboy – Boards Of Canada: Nice work, nice sound
- Into The Sea – The Album Leaf: Wonderful timing allows the layered sound to build carefully
- Plainsong – Seefeel: Years ahead of its time and almost two decades old, unbelievably
- Brighter As We Fall – Engineers: Sounds like Slowdive, which is good
- Ostinato – Eluvium: Another epic score for searching the solar system
- Light Through The Veins – Jon Hopkins: Like a pure dance take on Seefeel
- Suckling The Mender – Cocteau Wins: If ‘Blown A Wish’ isn’t the best pop song ever, this is
- The Loom – Bark Psychosis: An amazing post-rock first from the most under-rated band ever
- Blowin’ Cool – Airiel – A discordant treat
- Ba Ba – Sigur Ros: Post-rock music box for a ballet performance
- The Music In My Head – Daniel Land & The Painters: More modern-day nugazing; nice
- Miniature 9 – Matthew Robert Cooper: Just impossibly sad
Re Boards – is that the original or the odd nosdam remix?
The orignal; that’s all I could find on Spotify. The Odd Nosdam remix is wonderful. Actually, there isn’t much Boards of Canada stuff on Spotify. And nothing by Stars of th Lid, who I absolutely adore.