Cool and tranquil, flowing with the speed of a glacial
ice drift; Slowdive is the band that the British music press based their
description of shoegazers on. Their
music is all about big, slow, lush, dreamlike walls of sound, vocals half-whispered,
but guitars deafeningly loud. Their
music is meditative, and gentle, but has grandness in the spirit of Pink Floyd;
Slowdive’s is music meant more for private moments alone than epic rock
spectacle. They lack the faster,
more chaotic aspects of their contemporaries, like My Bloody Valentine, Chapterhouse,
and Catherine Wheel. And, unlike Ride, their major style-shift wasn’t from
experimental to more commercial, it was from experimental to quieter, sparser,
and even less commercial.
Formed
in Reading, England in 1989, Slowdive was fronted by singer/guitarist Neil
Halstead, and singer/guitarist Rachel Goswell. Christian Savill joined on guitar, along with Nick Chaplain
on bass; Simon Scott eventually settled the lineup as they signed to Creation
Records in 1990. They released
their self-titled debut e.p., featuring the songs “Slowdive,” “Avalyn I,” and
the eight-minute instrumental “Avalyn II.” The following year they released the Morningrise e.p., and the Holding
Our Breath e.p., before releasing their debut album, Just for a Day, in September 1991.
Full
and lush, Just for a Day relies on
heavier synthesizer usage than their early e.p.’s; it is an album meant to be
experienced as a whole, and had little chance for any commercial
breakthrough. The British music
press, who had been lauding accolades on the band’s first e.p.’s turned on
Slowdive as the shoegazer backlash began in the press. The arrival of American grunge bands
began to have an erosive effect on the press’s short-lived love affair with the
shoegazer genre, and though they had yet to turn completely on bands with
faster, slightly more accessible songs, Slowdive’s dirges were quickly
panned. With gentle, hushed vocals
from Halstead and Goswell, and crashing waves of guitar drone, “Spanish Air” opens
the album; it's methodical rhythms and ambient keyboards sounding reminiscent
of The Cure’s Faith album. The album is full of echoes and rings, drifts and flows,
never rushing anything for even a second, while emitting great sonic power; Just for a Day is pure headphone music,
meant for eyes-closed meditation.
By the time “Primal,” the album’s closing number, reaches its soaring,
epic climax, the listener has the feeling of having been lifted through the air,
only to quickly be dropped when the guitars cut out, bringing the album to its
close.
The
band also faced difficulty with their U.S. record label, SBK Records, which set
up a viral marketing campaign to make American audiences aware of the album's
impending U.S. release, then pushing the release date back four months. Following a U.S. tour in 1992
supporting Ride, Slowdive returned to the studio to begin working on their
follow up, the negative press had begun taking it's toll, making Halstead feel
insecure in his songwriting during the albums labored recording. Plans to have legendary producer /
musician Brian Eno produce the second album fell through, resulting in only a
couple of session, but it sparked Halstead to compose the strongest material of
the band’s catalog.
Souvlaki, is a grand epic, soaring and
building through nearly every song; the album has slightly quicker tempos,
meaning they get up the slower end of the mid-tempo range, but the guitar
atmospherics raise the listener to new heights. The band put together a collection that even contains
multiple songs that could conceivably be put into some kind of radio rotation;
maybe not on a major alternative station, like Los Angeles’ KROQ, but perhaps
late at night on NPR or college radio (though the band did get heavy support
from KROQ’s legendary D.J., Rodney Bingenheimer’s Rodney on the ROQ show).
The album, released in the UK in June 1993, bursts open with “Alison,”
which had been released on the In Your
Room e.p. in May. The song
builds and swirls, with rising guitar over Halstead and Goswell’s gentle
harmonies. The guitar sounds
captured on Souvlaki aim for the heavens; sonic
explorations of space and emotion, and are prevalent throughout the album. “Sing,” from the sessions with Eno, the
Velvet Undergroud-esque “Here She Comes,” and “Altogether” provide the quieter
moments on the album, while “Souvlaki Space Station” and “When The Sun Hits”
mark the strongest one-two punch on any Slowdive release - taking the listener
through the stratosphere, with soaring ethereal guitars. "Souvlaki Space
Station" opens with delayed guitars ringing, before taking off with more
drive than anything in the band’s catalog. Goswells floating voice is unintelligible, but this is
really lyric based music; this is music to float along with and be carried away
by. "When The Sun Hits"
begins light and unassuming, "Sweet thing, I watch you / Burn so fast it
scares me / My game, please don't leave me / Come so far, don't lose
me...," Halstead gently intones in the first verse, the band gently
drifting behind his voice; then as he sings the first verse's final line,
"...It matters where you are," the heavens open in a burst of sound
that feels like sunlight breaking through the clouds. The guitars ascend like jet engines and the song propels
itself forward into a defining moment for the band; it is the creative peak for
a young band whose sole intention was sonic exploration.
The
band's difficulties with the American arm of their label continued, however,
and following a brief U.S. tour supporting Catherine Wheel in 1993, the band
was forced to pay for the subsequent North American tour themselves, through
sales of a self-recorded and produced live cassette, after SBK pulled funding
for the tour. As the band entered
the studio in 1994 to begin work on their third album, Halstead had a new
experimental direction in mind, causing drummer Simon Scott to depart the group
due to musical differences. Ian
McCutcheon replaced Scott as the band set off in a new musical direction.
The
resulting album, Pygmalion was a
drastic departure from the distortion-filled walls of sound the band had made
their name with. Heavily
influenced by the experimental latter albums Spirit of Eden and Laughing
Stock by Talk Talk, Pygmalion is
sparse, leaving room for the listener's imagination to fill in the blanks. The album is as adventurous as anything
Slowdive had done, and stands as a direct challenge to listeners looking for
the band who thought the band only had one sound in their repertoire; however,
by 1995 the press had fully embraced the Britpop movement and Creation Records
decided they would rather reap the benefits of the chart-topping Britpop group
Oasis, rather than promote intentionally un-commercial groups, like Slowdive,
who were dropped by the label following the release of Pygmalion. Savil and
Chaplain then departed the group, leaving Halstead, Goswell, and McCutcheon to
form the group Mojave 3, who moved in a more acoustic direction.
Despite
their lack of commercial success, Slowdive has proven to be a highly influential
group, helping to inform the sound of Secret Machines, Iceland's Sugur Ros, and
Canada's God Speed You! Black Emporor.
With their thick, glacial sound, Slowdive embodied the sound and style
of the shoegazer genre more than any other band of their time.
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