Let's not overlook the effect of shoegazers like My Bloody Valentine, Ride, or Swervedriver on non-rock music. Take the smeared laptop watercolors and coarse, bristled sounds of Loden's full-length Mush debut, Valeen Hope, for example. You'd be forgiven for assuming the album's varied timbres were all pulsing through a dozen tweaked effects pedals. But you'd be wrong. Instead, Loden borrows the production palate of many a Mush stalwart, dropping churned, IDM-inspired programming, but tenderizing the end results to Loveless-like (or at least Dead Cities-like) textures. In terms of songwriting, Loden's compositions never touch the fucked-pop grandeur of MBV. But in terms of M83-sized sonic waves, Valeen Hope is a slab of shoegazer perfection. - XLR8R |