Hailing from
Redding, England, Chapterhouse made a large impact on the underground with
minimal output. Much like The
Stone Roses, Chapterhouse's output only consisted of two albums and a few
singles. The influence they would
have on their peers and followers, however, was much more prominent.
Formed
in 1989, Chapterhouse consisted of Andrew Sherriff and Stephen Patman, who
shared vocal and guitar duties, Simon Rowe on guitar, Jon Curtis on bass, and
Ashley Bates on drums. The band
would release a pair of e.p.'s in late 1990 that blended the chaotic feedback
blast of My Bloody Valentine and The Jesus & Mary Chain, with the dance
rhythms of Happy Mondays and The Stone Roses.
Whirlpool, the band's debut album, was
released on April 29, 1991 and quickly became one of the cornerstones of the
shoegaze genre.
"Breather," the album's opener, starts with that feeling you
have when you're falling in your sleep and you wake up just before you hit the
ground. From there there's a
kaleidoscopic swirl of light and shimmering colors - "On my own / tears and sorrow set me right / Taught me
how to dream tonight," Sherriff and Patman harmonize gently over the
quick, chaotic rush of the music.
The
album's second track, "Pearl" reached number 67 on the U.K. singles charts. "Pearl," which features
backing vocals from Rachel Goswell of fellow Redding shoegazers Slowdive, is
early evidence of the electronic textures Chapterhouse would explore following
their debut. When the song breaks
leaving only a backwards-looped drumbeat, the guitar cords that follow hit the
listener like fresh ocean waves on a summer's day, as the band bursts into the
songs final chorus, elevated by Goswell's gentle falsetto.
The
album switches modes from quiet and drifting, to loud, crashing and chaotic,
all while mixing house-influenced dance grooves with thick, glistening guitar
haze. "Falling Down,"
which led off the band's debut e.p., features a swirl of dance grooves and
wah-wah guitar funk drawn straight from the then-burgeoning Madchester
acid-house scene, with Patman and Sherriff's breathy vocals buried deep in the
mix. "If You Want Me,"
the albums penultimate song, gently captures the yearning of the heart, before
exploding in a climatic rush that is as exhilarating as the feelings its lyrics
are drawn from, and all in under three minutes. "Something More," the lead track from the band's
second e.p., is a scintillating drifter that morphs from gentle drift to raging
swells as the album closes.
The
band followed Whirlpool with Mesmerise, a four-track e.p. which saw
the band delve more into their electronic influences. The title track, a gentle pop groove over a piano loop,
would fit nicely alongside the work of electronic-rock pioneers New Order,
while "Then We'll Rise" sways in its 3/4 waltz. The single would be an indication of
the musical styles the band would explore two years later on their anticipated
follow-up album.
Chapterhouse
would return in October 1993 with Blood
Music, a dense array of electronic synthesizers, ringing guitars and drum
loops, influenced by the electronic music of New Order and Kraftwerk, with the
ecstasy-fuelled rave music of The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays. Much of the album flows seamlessly from
one song to the next, one dance beat giving way to the next; the stretches of
chaos and noise are nearly non-existent, the band opting more for groove and
gentle melody - think Dark Side of the
Moon goes clubbing. “We Are the Beautiful” and “She’s a
Vision” the album's singles, mix driving guitar with club beats and
soul-influenced backing vocals, while “Summer’s Gone” ripples like cool water
touched by a summer’s breeze.
“Everytime”
continues the indie-guitar riff over house music drum-and-bass groove aesthetic
of the album, its pulsing synth-bass continuing into “Deli,” six-plus minutes
of instrumental trance-groove shuffle, which then flows seamlessly into “On the
Way to Fly,” an abstract meditation on mortality. “You find it out / When you lose your life / You see the
truth / When the world lets you down / I want peace / I want life / Pleasure /
Never / Time sleeps / On the way to fly,” they sing softly, the vocal style
being one of the few holdovers from the band’s debut album.
In
the album's final third, “She’s a Vision” gives way to the driving guitars on
the quick-tempo “Greater Power,” which is the closest the band gets
stylistically to the songs on Whirlpool. This flows into the loping bass of
“Confusion Trip,” which leads into the gentle groove and infectious chorus of
the album's optimistic closer, “Love Forever,” the gentle vocals drifting away
as the ringing guitars fade out.
Unfortunately,
Blood Music, was not particularly
well-received by the British music press, who by 1993 were turning on the genre
they acclaimed two years earlier, and many fans initially weren’t on board with
the Chapterhouse’s change in direction.
With time though, many of the band's fans came to appreciate the album
as a groundbreaking effort that would have likely found favor with the music
press had it come out in the latter ‘90’s, when acts ranging from David Bowie
and David Byrne, to U2 and Smashing Pumpkins were experimenting with electronic
textures and club-influenced dance rhythms. If the listener can step away from listening for the album
that he or she wants the band to make following Whirlpool; and listen for the album that the band wanted to make, the
beauty of Blood Music reveals itself.
Following
a US tour supporting The Wonder Stuff, Chapterhouse did a brief UK tour before
calling it a day, claiming they had done what they wanted to do musically. Fourteen years later, Patman and
Sherriff joined German DJ Ulrich Strauss on stage at the Truck Festival in
Oxfordshire, England, in July 2008, for a rendition of “Love Forever.” This would result in the band reforming
for a pair of UK shows that November.
In 2009, the band embarked on a brief string of shows in Japan and North
America; popping up to say hello to their fans before calling it quits. Despite their meager output,
Chapterhouse left a large influence on the world of ethereal rock music, and
their influence can be heard in the works of Ulrich Strauss and Sigur Ros.
No comments:
Post a Comment