I wonder, is the album Avalon by the famous
band Roxy Music, the first to sort of hint towards dream pop, or shoegaze. I’m
thinking, it creates such warm landscapes of sound, which is reminiscent, of
what i hear when I listen to dream pop, shoegaze and electro pop; the
washing sound that takes you of to another realm. A dozing sound which also
feels like floating, on a sea of valium; a tranquilized sound that sweeps you
of your good feet.
I tend to think that way, that this
album created so many nice atmospheric songs, and also experimentation involved
makes it so worth the thought of it having an impact on the style of music,
called dream pop/shoegaze.
the album also carries a minimalistic
feel, a feel of letting the atmospheres, the soul of the instrument rather than
the flashy, but when the impression i have is that the creative energy was
spent more on creating "sounds", an ethereal crossed with aerial,
which with that creates a contrast between earth and air, the solid and the
free. Keeps you both on the ground, yet still manage to sweep you of your feet,
like Peter Pan on the way to Never Neverland, Or to Avalon, or Wonderland, or
Oz. It is to me a mixture of realism and fantasy. Which is also what dream pop,
and electro pop does to me, not lyrically but with the focus on creating the dense
sound.
I find Avalon to be a
unique album in the way it perfects the sort of idea i think the band (or Ferry)
had, life is like a dream, existence is like the flow of the wind, life is like
drifting, love is deeply grounded into soil but also an experience of
the lofty and free feel of air, yet it also has the fiery nature
of fire, and the fluidity of water.
Yet is there hidden elements
of fiery nature, and dampness of wetness on Avalon, I feel more fire
in the guitar and in some of the drumming, which creates the contrast of the
airy and ethereal nature of the synth, sax and oboe. And Avalon is an
island surrounded by water, so the album is a journey over stilled
water, with the only view is the fog that encases you.
All the atmospheres
it creates in me, a feel of dreamyness, a dream state of sorts, and it is an art pop album. That
combines in my mind an idea of this being a dream pop, shoegaze album of an
early stage.