Shoegaze & Dream Pop

Somehow I got ahold of this great 2 cassette set in the mid 80's titled "The Best of 4AD" which featured mostly the people who made up This Mortal Coil & Brendan & Lisa from Dead Can Dance and I was hooked. 

Luna wrote: A Person wrote: I thought DCD were darkwave I did too ;)

I thought they were neofolk.

Cocteau Twins.

Heaven or Las Vegas is one of my favourite albums of all time.

I love a lot of these bands, thus I'll have to take the sentimental route and give Lush the nod as they're the only group on the list I've seen live twice (seen DCD, Cranes and Alcest once) and they were one of my defining bands for the 90s, in that hearing their music takes me back to some pretty cool times in my life. Man I loved Miki.

Edited by Prog Sothoth - November 11 2013 at 12:07

Been a Cocteau/Elizabeth Frasier/Robin Guthrie fan since I bought Treasure in '84 based solely on its album cover. Proceeded to become a 4 A.D./Beggars Banquet addict so have all those and more (Lush, Dif Juz, This Mortal Coil, Lisa Gerrard before DCD, Clan of Xymox, Kitchens of Distinction, Trashcan Sinatras, Throwing Muses, Pixies, His Name Is Alive, In Camera, Lakuna, Modern English, Lydia Lunch, The The, Pale Saints, Xmal Deutschland, Moon and the Melodies). No less than four Cocteau Twins albums and three EPS in my all-time Top 100 albums. Also, check out Robine Guthrie's solo releases in the past decade: a return to Treasure/Victorialand era. Utter bliss.

dr wu23 wrote: aginor wrote: dr wu23 wrote: Not sure that Dead Can Dance is shoe gaze nor dream pop....but they are my favorite on the list so voted for them, ...I also really like This Mortal Coil and Cocteau Twins who do qualify as shoe gaze/dream pop. Background information OriginMelbourne , Australia  (formed) London , England  (recorded/signed) Genres Neoclassical dark wave , dark wave , ethereal wave , gothic rock , post-punk  (early)   Interestingly PA here calls them 'prog folk'..... DEAD CAN DANCE combine elements of European folk music - particularly music from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance - with ambient pop and worldbeat flourishes. Their songs are of lost beauty, regret and sorrow, inspiration and nobility, and of the everlasting human goal of attaining a meaningful existence. Topically they draw inspiration from the themes similar to those of Symphonic Progressive Rock and Progressive Folk. Musically, they often use production techniques related to Progressive Electronic and Experimental styles. Their music is hard to categorize at times. http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp? id=3172

I am just inyøtreagued to check them,out

The.Crimson.King wrote: dr wu23 wrote: aginor wrote: dr wu23 wrote: Not sure that Dead Can Dance is shoe gaze nor dream pop....but they are my favorite on the list so voted for them, ...I also really like This Mortal Coil and Cocteau Twins who do qualify as shoe gaze/dream pop. Background information OriginMelbourne , Australia  (formed) London , England  (recorded/signed) Genres Neoclassical dark wave , dark wave , ethereal wave , gothic rock , post-punk  (early)   Interestingly PA here calls them 'prog folk'..... DEAD CAN DANCE combine elements of European folk music - particularly music from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance - with ambient pop and worldbeat flourishes. Their songs are of lost beauty, regret and sorrow, inspiration and nobility, and of the everlasting human goal of attaining a meaningful existence. Topically they draw inspiration from the themes similar to those of Symphonic Progressive Rock and Progressive Folk. Musically, they often use production techniques related to Progressive Electronic and Experimental styles. Their music is hard to categorize at times. http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=3172 I'd also mention that their 1st EP & album ("Dead Can Dance" & "The Garden of Earthly Delights") were orchestrated with traditional "rock band" instrumentation (my fave DCD albums) but after they began using authentic medieval period instruments.

I have been a fan of dreampop, shoegaze and darkwave for many years. You could put a lot of bands in a venn diagram that fits them in one or more of those genres. Would love to hear a collision of those styles with prog. I'm glad there's others here that share this interest. I don't think it's important to fit artists neatly into categories, but it helps when making recommendations. Any fans of MBV should check out Medicine. You might have seen them briefly in the film "The Crow". Also check out Melody's Echo Chamber, Sleep Over, Young Prisms and The Flir.

This is a genre of music I've being exploring of late.  Julee Cruise is the ultimate dream pop artist for me, in particular her first two albums, 'Floating Into The Night' and 'The Voice Of Love'.

Other artists/albums in this genre that I particularly like/recommend are:

1) 'Inside Out' - Emmy Rossum
2) 'Melody's Echo Chamber' - Melody Prochet
3) 'Ultraviolence' - Lana Del Rey
4) Mimi Page (her entire catalogue)
5) Say Lou Lou (their entire catalogue)
6) 'Anywhere I Lay My Head' - Scarlett Johansson (an astonishingly good album from someone whose primary job is other than making music)





Edited by Floydoid - August 26 2015 at 09:03