Bowery Electric - Beat (1996): Dual Illusions

During the mid-nineties, most individuals who were inspired by the UK Shoegaze movement's sound continued experimenting with distortion, however there were some groups who incorporated different elements with the reining noise coming from Great Britain. 

Manhattan-based rockers Bowery Electric were somewhat known for a progressive sound from their first self-titled album released in 95, but it wasn't until a year later the band would incorporate an unusual element to the already-peaking grunge sound of that era. They took programmed drum and bass beats and infused their whirling ambient synths, grooved bass lines and soft, almost effortless vocal harmonies in tandem with this sound. Even in 2015, some of the beats sound almost outdated mainly due to their association with various styles like the 90s hip hop scene or the 80s new wave sound, but nonetheless it was a clever stray for the Shoegaze movement taking flight right behind other groups like Curve, The Boo Radleys Chapterhouse and others who used beats to backdrop behind the washed out guitars.

Bowery Electric released their sophomore album Beat in 1996 and the very first track, titled the same name of the album is a looming introduction to the band and establishes their unique mechanical style that functions throughout the rest of the album. Their style operates on two levels: the beats on one and the rest of the music on another. Atmospheric synths, guitar effects, repetitive droning bass lines, and soft, almost crisply monotoned vocals function separately from the beats because they do not follow the structured pattern. If anything, the beats serve as an enhancer more than anything else -- bringing the sound complete and establishes a sense of fullness. Their overall sound is constructed from these two puzzle pieces. Each their own enigma when isolated, containing oddly curved edges yet when pieced together the edges fit together creating a smooth edged single component. 

This is perfectly exemplified in tracks like "Under the Sun," "Looped" and "Postscript" where the presence of beats are absent. While some might consider the first two merely transitions and the last an epic conclusion, they serve more purpose of leveling down to highlight the power of their collaborative sound that is the unison force behind the beats, guitars, bass and vocals on the other tracks. 

Even the cover art displays an image of an interstate connector where two exits curve away from another yet possess the same shape. The album focuses heavily on the notion of dualities. Bowery Electric uses ambient sounds and guitar effects to convey dual contradictory emotions: that of a haunting but also calming feeling. They fluctuate as the album progresses and finishes with an epic return to minimalism. Certain tracks set a dream-like atmosphere of cloud floating, but others erase the cloud and directly cause a free-falling nightmarish mood. This is also heard in the band's lyrics when singer Martha Schwendener harmonizes in "Coming Down": Close your eyes, we're coming down. Close your eyes, we're coming down," almost to suggest the illusion of a figurative being falling in a nightmare. Even in the first track she softly exclaims:

"Words are just noise.

Words are only noise."

The repetition of this phrase is quite enigmatic the way it formulates the thought of words and even goes as far as to suggest a conversation in linguistics or semiotics. One could perceive it as a declaration of the flaws within the language and how there are holes within human beings' communicability. Perhaps the intention is to destroy meaning within lyrics in general. Maybe the band sees an over-romanticization of lyrics in the way people idolize the words over the music. The lyrics and music both contribute to open discourse and continue onward almost twenty years later proving to be more than just noise with a catchy beat. 

Shoegaze: a genre, series or mode?

I still remember the first time I heard Loveless by My Bloody Valentine. It reminded me the way one puts their tongue against a 9-volt battery--electrifying, shocking, and jolting all through my veins. The actual music gave me a euphoric feeling the same way that an electric current travels from a charge. I was immersed deep within this idea of distortion and wanted badly to aurally take in as many other bands that had the same sound.

I took a film class on the History of American Motion Pictures and one unit focused on Film Noir. There was an assigned reading from John Belton's "Film Noir: Somewhere in the Night" and in his essay he discusses how there are many critics who disagree over the definition of Film Noir. Since there are similarities, one can apply his analysis to the way critics and listeners see Shoegaze as well. 

For instance, there are individuals who believe Shoegaze is a genre. There are bands that use the same technique to produce a similar sound and contain trends that unilaterally bind them together in a category. If this is the case, then Shoegaze bands rely on their aesthetics that comprise the overall concept. Distorted guitars, waves of sound, droned out lyrics, angel-like harmonies, angsty lyrics, repetition, and picturesque soundscapes are the core units that in fact define a band as Shoegaze. 

On the other hand, there are others who grossly disagree and rather perceive the term as a mode. If this is the case then instead of relying on its aesthetics to classify it within an overall genre, it focuses more on the individuality of the core aesthetics. If a band uses pedals to achieve a high distorted sound, then it is operating within the mode. That being said, if something can operate within a mode, then it can just as easily fluctuate in and out of the mode. This translates to a song that uses high distortion on the chorus can ultimately become or evolve into Shoegaze. By creating the simple characteristic, it is engulfed into the mode. 

Unlike both genre and mode there are others who define Shoegaze by its temporal revelation. They associate it more to the time period when these bands originally emerged and when it peaked - the late eighties and early nineties. It is seen more of a historical perspective and operates merely within that single time frame. By their logic, it is more about a cycle or series of bands like My Bloody Valentine, Lush, Ride, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Slowdive, Swerverdriver, Chapterhouse, Catherine Wheel and Spacemen 3 that ARE Shoegaze but contemporary or modern bands that use similar aesthetics like The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, Yuck, M83, A Place To Bury Strangers, Pity Sex, The Vandelles, A Sunny Day in Glasgow, Airiel, Mogwai, and Washed Out ARE NOT. Even by this definition, The Vandelles' cover of Spacemen 3's "Losing Touch With My Mind" while it might posess the Shoegaze sound that is rooted within Spacemen 3's original version, it remains grounded within its origins and does not translate through to the band covering. Like the early nineties hip hop movement or grunge, it is rooted more within the culture or a series of bands/people than the link and unifying aspect from its aesthetics. For example, in Islands' song "Where There's a Will There's a Whalebone" a member of the group raps in the bridge, however this song nor its band is associated with hip hop the same as Gucci Mane or Juicy J.

All of this aside, Shoegaze no matter how  anyone defines it, is music. So much of the time, individuals allow themselves to get caught up on labeling or assigning meaning that it dilutes the music. It is like two parents fighting over a child and the child is just looking up existing by itself in its own relm. Why is it more essential to know what it is than how it operates? It's music--a live entity that has the power to evolve and transform lives. And in the words of Stevo from the film SLC Punk (1998), "Who cares who started it, it's music!"

Distortion from 9-Volts

So I decided to start Shoegaze Sundays out of the blue mainly because I love this "type/style/genre/whateveryouwanttocallit" and throughout the discourse of analyzing bands that possess this sound might possibly help to unravel more understanding of the appeal. Every Sunday I will showcase a new album or EP of a band I am either very familiar with or a new one I happen to stumble upon in my quest to discuss everything "shocking" about this "type/style/genre/whateveryouwanttocallit."