Beach House Turn Up the Silence

Beach House are, mostly, well-understood by now.  We expect them to craft heavenly dream pop that’s less noisy than classic shoegaze but not as sparsely bleak as all-time mopers like Red House Painters.  As they’ve proved before on songs like ‘Myth’ and ‘Lazuli,’ they represent another in a long and distinguished line of bands who…

Slowdive: The quintessential shoegaze band

Just for a Day (1991) – 5 stars Souvlaki (1993) – 4.5 stars Pygmalion (1995) – 3 stars I was surprised to discover that I’ve never written about any musical group that would be classified as ‘shoegaze.’  That genre’s emphasis on heavenly washes of guitar sounds, gentle vocals, heavy feedback, and timeless melodies worked wonders…